| First Author | Crompton T | Year | 1998 |
| Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | 1859-66 |
| PubMed ID | 9645367 | Mgi Jnum | J:48190 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:1266925 | Doi | 10.1002/(SICI)1521-4141(199806)28:06<1859::AID-IMMU1859>3.0.CO;2-A |
| Citation | Crompton T, et al. (1998) Distinct roles of the interleukin-7 receptor alpha chain in fetal and adult thymocyte development revealed by analysis of interleukin-7 receptor alpha-deficient mice. Eur J Immunol 28(6):1859-66 |
| abstractText | Mouse mutants lacking expression of the IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) alpha chain are defective in thymopoiesis. The adult thymus has multiple defects, including reduced cell numbers and proportions of the more mature thymocyte subsets, a complete absence of CD25+ cells and a reduced level of RAG1 and RAG2 expression. We show here that, in contrast to the profound developmental arrest observed in the adult thymus, fetal thymocytes from IL-7Ralpha-/- mice have normal proportions of all of the major thymocyte subpopulations, including CD25+ thymocytes and the most mature single-positive subsets. Moreover, normal levels of RAG1 and RAG2 were observed. Total thymocyte numbers, however, remained reduced. These data suggest that the IL-7Ralpha chain is a key regulator of both survival and proliferation during thymocyte development but that it is not essential for the production of T cells during fetal thymopoiesis. |
