Promiscuous gene expression patterns in single medullary thymic epithelial cells argue for a stochastic mechanism.

Modest cortex and promiscuous medulla for thymic repertoire formation.

Recent advances in the understanding of medullary thymic epithelial cell biology, and especially of their promiscuous gene expression, have highlighted the indispensable role of thymic medulla in shaping a self-tolerant T-cell repertoire. Additionally, our recent results have shown that cortical thymic epithelial cells possess a unique proteasome (the so-called thymoproteasome), which seems to ...

Medullary Epithelial Cells of the Human Thymus Express a Highly Diverse Selection of Tissue-specific Genes Colocalized in Chromosomal Clusters

Promiscuous expression of tissue-specific self-antigens in the thymus imposes T cell tolerance and protects from autoimmune diseases, as shown in animal studies. Analysis of promiscuous gene expression in purified stromal cells of the human thymus at the single and global gene level documents the species conservation of this phenomenon. Medullary thymic epithelial cells overexpress a highly div...

Genome-wide gene expression profiling of homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 deficient medullary thymic epithelial cells

The establishment of central tolerance essentially depends on the promiscuous gene expression (pGE) of a plethora of tissue restricted antigens by the medullary thymic epithelial cells. The antigens are presented to developing thymocytes in the thymus to select for non-self reactive T-cell receptors in order to prevent autoimmune reactions in the periphery. However the molecular regulation of t...

Promiscuous Gene Expression Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cells and Proliferation and Differentiation of An Organotypic Coculture Model Supporting

Overlapping gene coexpression patterns in human medullary thymic epithelial cells generate self-antigen diversity.

Promiscuous expression of numerous tissue-restricted self-antigens (TRAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is essential to safeguard self-tolerance. A distinct feature of promiscuous gene expression is its mosaic pattern (i.e., at a given time, each self-antigen is expressed only in 1-3% of mTECs). How this mosaic pattern is generated at the single-cell level is currently not unders...