| First Author | Leung RK | Year | 2001 |
| Journal | Nat Immunol | Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 12 | Pages | 1167-73 |
| PubMed ID | 11694883 | Mgi Jnum | J:295204 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6457645 | Doi | 10.1038/ni733 |
| Citation | Leung RK, et al. (2001) Deletion of the CD4 silencer element supports a stochastic mechanism of thymocyte lineage commitment. Nat Immunol 2(12):1167-73 |
| abstractText | The mechanism of T cell lineage commitment remains controversial; to examine it we deleted the CD4-silencer element in the germ line of a mouse using a combination of gene targeting and Cre/LoxP-mediated recombination. We found that these mice were unable to extinguish CD4 expression either in immature thymocytes or mature CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (CTLs), which resulted in the development of major histocompatibility complex class II-restricted double-positive CTLs in the periphery. This finding strongly supports a stochastic over an instructive mechanism of coreceptor down-regulation. |
