Launching the T-cell-lineage developmental programme

Launching the T-Lineage Developmental Programme

Multipotent blood progenitor cells enter the thymus and begin a protracted differentiation process in which they gradually acquire T-cell characteristics while shedding their legacy of developmental plasticity. Notch signalling and basic helix-loop-helix E-protein transcription factors collaborate repeatedly to trigger and sustain this process throughout the period leading up to T-cell lineage ...

T-Cell Development: T-cell lineage commitment revisited

Years of controversy about the lineage relationship between alpha beta and gamma delta T cells may at last have been resolved: it now appears that most T cells derive from an identical T-lineage committed precursor.

Aging and developmental transitions in the B cell lineage.

One explanation for the deterioration of the humoral immune response in elderly individuals is that B lymphopoiesis declines with increasing age. Recent studies report a dramatic decline in pre-B cell numbers in old mice. Surprisingly, the number of mature B cells does not decline with age. To determine if new B cells are made in aged animals despite the drop in pre-B cells, we used 5'-bromo-2-...

Fine-Scale Staging of T Cell Lineage

Plasticity of CD4+ T cell lineage differentiation.

The differentiation of naive CD4(+) T cells into lineages with distinct effector functions has been considered to be an irreversible event. T helper type 1 (Th1) cells stably express IFN-gamma, whereas Th2 cells express IL-4. The discovery and investigation of two other CD4(+) T cell subsets, induced regulatory T (iTreg) cells and Th17 cells, has led to a rethinking of the notion that helper T ...