Measuring emigration of human thymocytes by T-cell receptor excision circles.

A Quantitative Study of the Mechanisms behind Thymic Atrophy in Gαi2-Deficient Mice during Colitis Development

Mice deficient for the G protein subunit Gαi2 spontaneously develop colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease associated with dysregulated T cell responses. We and others have previously demonstrated a thymic involution in these mice and an aberrant thymocyte dynamics. The Gαi2(-/-) mice have a dramatically reduced fraction of double positive thymocytes and an increased fraction of single positiv...

The Effects of Age, Thymectomy, and HIV Infection on and TCR Excision Circles in Naive T Cells

Due to homeostasis total naive T cell numbers remain fairly constant over life despite a gradual involution of the thymus. The contribution of the thymus to maintaining naive T cell pools is typically measured with TCR excision circles (TRECs) that are formed in thymocytes. The mechanisms underlying thymic involution are poorly understood. Some data suggest that thymocytes undergo fewer divisio...

PID Comes Full Circle: Applications of V(D)J Recombination Excision Circles in Research, Diagnostics and Newborn Screening of Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders

The vast majority of patients suffering from a primary immunodeficiency (PID) have defects in their T- and/or B-cell compartments. Despite advances in molecular diagnostics, in many patients no underlying genetic defect has been identified. B- and T-lymphocytes are unique in their ability to create a receptor by genomic rearrangement of their antigen receptor genes via V(D)J recombination. Duri...

Thymic Emigrants Circles as a Measure of Human Recent Reevaluation of T Cell Receptor Excision

Early maturation of T-cell progenitors in the absence of glucocorticoids.

In the present work, we demonstrated that both fetal liver and thymic T-cell precursors express glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) indirectly suggesting a role for glucocorticoids (GCs) in the earliest events of T-cell differentiation. To evaluate this issue, we analyzed the thymic ontogeny in the progeny of adrenalectomized pregnant rats (Adx fetuses), an in vivo experimental model, which ensures ...