| First Author | Veinotte LL | Year | 2006 |
| Journal | Blood | Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 7 | Pages | 2673-9 |
| PubMed ID | 16317098 | Mgi Jnum | J:131242 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3773389 | Doi | 10.1182/blood-2005-07-2797 |
| Citation | Veinotte LL, et al. (2006) Expression of rearranged TCRgamma genes in natural killer cells suggests a minor thymus-dependent pathway of lineage commitment. Blood 107(7):2673-9 |
| abstractText | Natural killer (NK) cells are thought to develop from common lymphoid progenitors in the bone marrow. However, immature thymocytes also retain NK potential. Currently, the contribution of the thymus-dependent pathway in normal steady-state NK-cell development is unknown. Here, we show that TCRgamma genes are rearranged in approximately 5% of neonatal and 1% of adult mouse splenic NK cells, and similar levels are detected in NK cells from TCRbeta,delta double-knockout mice, excluding the possibility of T-cell contamination. NK-cell TCRgamma gene rearrangement is thymus dependent because this rearrangement is undetectable in nude mouse NK cells. These results change the current view of NK-cell development and show that a subset of NK cells develops from immature thymocytes that have rearranged TCRgamma genes. |
