| First Author | Guy-Grand D | Year | 1992 |
| Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 505-10 |
| PubMed ID | 1537384 | Mgi Jnum | J:1933 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:50457 | Doi | 10.1002/eji.1830220232 |
| Citation | Guy-Grand D, et al. (1992) Different expression of the recombination activity gene RAG-1 in various populations of thymocytes, peripheral T cells and gut thymus-independent intraepithelial lymphocytes suggests two pathways of T cell receptor rearrangement. Eur J Immunol 22(2):505-10 |
| abstractText | The presence of transcripts of the recombination activating gene RAG-1 was studied by in situ hybridization on selected populations of murine thymocytes, peripheral lymphocytes and gut intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL), obtained by cell sorting. RAG-1 mRNA was found in a majority of double-positive (DP) thymocytes, but was absent in single-positive thymocytes and peripheral T lymphocytes. The only other T lineages in which about 10%-20% of the cells contained RAG-1 mRNA, and in smaller amounts, were double-negative (DN), T cell receptor (TcR) gamma delta- cortical thymocytes and gut CD3- IEL. These observations suggest that (a) the high expression of RAG-1 transcripts in DP thymocytes is related to the process of expansion-selection of these cells, probably accompanied by repeated TcR rearrangements, and that (b) in contrast, CD3- IEL from the gut (which are thymus independent) as well as some DN thymocytes undergo limited TcR rearrangement giving rise locally to TcR+ T cells without prior extensive process of local expansion-selection. A small percentage of peripheral B cells also contained RAG-1 mRNA, raising the possibility that this protein may also be involved in immunoglobulin class switching. |
