| First Author | Davis CB | Year | 1993 |
| Journal | Cell | Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 237-47 |
| PubMed ID | 8097431 | Mgi Jnum | J:153274 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4361813 | Doi | 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90226-g |
| Citation | Davis CB, et al. (1993) Evidence for a stochastic mechanism in the differentiation of mature subsets of T lymphocytes. Cell 73(2):237-47 |
| abstractText | Thymocytes that coexpress the CD4 and CD8 glycoproteins differentiate into mature CD4+ helper or CD8+ cytotoxic cells depending on whether their antigen receptors are specific for MHC class II or class I molecules, respectively. The mechanism of this decision process was investigated in mice whose T cell development was biased toward the class II-specific lineage. We found that constitutive expression of CD4 allows a developmentally arrested population of thymocytes that have mismatched class II-specific TCRs and the CD8 coreceptor to be rescued and to acquire a cytotoxic phenotype. This result is consistent with a two-step process of thymocyte maturation, in which there is stochastic down-regulation of either CD4 or CD8 and subsequent selection based on the ability of the TCR and remaining coreceptor to engage the same MHC molecule. |
