Skip Navigation


International Immunology Advance Access originally published online on April 26, 2006
International Immunology 2006 18(6):911-920; doi:10.1093/intimm/dxl028
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
18/6/911    most recent
dxl028v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schnell, S.
Right arrow Articles by Jacobs, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schnell, S.
Right arrow Articles by Jacobs, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Japanese Society for Immunology. 2006. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Constitutive expression of the pre-TCR enables development of mature T cells

Silke Schnell1, Corinne Démollière2, Paul van den Berk1, Joerg Kirberg3 and Heinz Jacobs1

1 Division of Immunology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2 Department of Immunology, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
3 Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology, 79108 Freiburg, Germany

Correspondence to: H. Jacobs; E-mail: h.jacobs{at}nki.nl

Expression and signalling through the pre-TCR and the TCR{alpha}ß resemble two critical checkpoints during T cell development. We investigated to which extent a pre-TCR can functionally replace mature TCR{alpha} chains during T cell development. For this purpose, transgenic mice were generated expressing the pre-TCR{alpha} (pT{alpha}) under the transcriptional control of TCRß regulatory elements. We report here on the interesting finding that constitutive pT{alpha} expression allows complete T cell maturation. The pre-TCR complex permits a subset of ß-selected thymocytes to mature in the absence of TCR{alpha} into peripheral T cells (ßT cells) comprising up to 10% of all lymphocytes. Lymphopenia-driven proliferation of these ßT cells is similar to that of conventional {alpha}ßT cells. Furthermore, ßT cells proliferated and acquired effector function upon stimulation with allogeneic MHC.

Keywords: cell differentiation, pre-TCR, T cell development, thymus, transgenic/knockout mice

Transmitting editor: J. Borst


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.