First Author | Müller L | Year | 2017 |
Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 7 |
Issue | 1 | Pages | 15928 |
PubMed ID | 29162920 | Mgi Jnum | J:253577 |
Mgi Id | MGI:6110479 | Doi | 10.1038/s41598-017-15918-0 |
Citation | Muller L, et al. (2017) The corepressor NCOR1 regulates the survival of single-positive thymocytes. Sci Rep 7(1):15928 |
abstractText | Nuclear receptor corepressor 1 (NCOR1) is a transcriptional regulator bridging repressive chromatin modifying enzymes with transcription factors. NCOR1 regulates many biological processes, however its role in T cells is not known. Here we show that Cd4-Cre-mediated deletion of NCOR1 (NCOR1 cKO(Cd4)) resulted in a reduction of peripheral T cell numbers due to a decrease in single-positive (SP) thymocytes. In contrast, double-positive (DP) thymocyte numbers were not affected in the absence of NCOR1. The reduction in SP cells was due to diminished survival of NCOR1-null postselection TCRbeta(hi)CD69(+) and mature TCRbeta(hi)CD69(-) thymocytes. NCOR1-null thymocytes expressed elevated levels of the pro-apoptotic factor BIM and showed a higher fraction of cleaved caspase 3-positive cells upon TCR stimulation ex vivo. However, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB)-mediated deletion of Vbeta8(+) CD4SP thymocytes was normal, suggesting that negative selection is not altered in the absence of NCOR1. Finally, transgenic expression of the pro-survival protein BCL2 restored the population of CD69(+) thymocytes in NCOR1 cKO(Cd4) mice to a similar percentage as observed in WT mice. Together, these data identify NCOR1 as a crucial regulator of the survival of SP thymocytes and revealed that NCOR1 is essential for the proper generation of the peripheral T cell pool. |