| First Author | Almeida AR | Year | 2001 |
| Journal | J Exp Med | Volume | 194 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 591-9 |
| PubMed ID | 11535628 | Mgi Jnum | J:118033 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3698373 | Doi | 10.1084/jem.194.5.591 |
| Citation | Almeida AR, et al. (2001) T cell homeostasis: thymus regeneration and peripheral T cell restoration in mice with a reduced fraction of competent precursors. J Exp Med 194(5):591-9 |
| abstractText | We developed a novel experimental strategy to study T cell regeneration after bone marrow transplantation. We assessed the fraction of competent precursors required to repopulate the thymus and quantified the relationship between the size of the different T cell compartments during T cell maturation in the thymus. The contribution of the thymus to the establishment and maintenance of the peripheral T cell pools was also quantified. We found that the degree of thymus restoration is determined by the availability of competent precursors and that the number of double-positive thymus cells is not under homeostatic control. In contrast, the sizes of the peripheral CD4 and CD8 T cell pools are largely independent of the number of precursors and of the number of thymus cells. Peripheral 'homeostatic' proliferation and increased export and/or survival of recent thymus emigrants compensate for reduced T cell production in the thymus. In spite of these reparatory processes, mice with a reduced number of mature T cells in the thymus have an increased probability of peripheral T cell deficiency, mainly in the naive compartment. |
