International Immunology, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 401-414,March 1995
© 1995 Japanese Society for Immunology
IL-7 transgenic mice: analysis of the role of IL-7 in the differentiation of thymocytes in vivo and in vitro
LGME du CNRS, U184 INSERM, Institut de Chimie Biologique, Faculté de Médecine 11 rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cedex, France
Correspondence to: Correspondence to: Rh Ceredig
We have generated a high copy number transgenic mouse line in which expression of mouse IL-7 cDNA is under the control of the mouse MHC class II E
promoter. These mice were generated in order to see if IL-7 over-production in the thymus altered either thymocyte differentiation or the process of negative selection. Using in situ hybridization, IL-7 transcripts could be detected in the thymic cortex and medulla as well as the spleen and lymph nodes of transgenic mice but was undetectable in normal controls. Phenotypic and molecular analysis of thymocytes from embryonic and adult transgenic mice failed to reveal a dramatic effect of IL-7 on thymocyte differentiation and negative selection of the TCR Vß repertoire appeared to be intact. In peripheral lymph nodes, there was a massive (30-fold) increase in the number of T cells (CD8+ >> CD4+) and simultaneous presence of immature (B220+, Ig–) B cells. TCR repertoire analysis showed that the expansion of peripheral T cells was polyclonal. Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), transgene-specific IL-7 transcripts could be detected in the thymus from day 14 of fetal development However, using semi-quantitative PCR, there was no dramatic increase in the degree of TCRß or TCR gene rearrangements during thymocyte ontogeny in vivo. Similarly, when fetal mouse thymus lobes were cultured with IL-7 in vitro, there was no dramatic increase in the degree of TCRß or TCR gene rearrangements. We conclude that IL-7 is probably not an important differentiation factor for immature mouse thymocytes.
Keywords: in situ hybridization, flow microfluorimetry, IL-7, MHC class II promoter, polymerase chain reaction, TCR gene rearrangements, thymus ontogeny, transgenic mice
Received 11 August 1994, accepted 18 November 1994.
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