| First Author | Egawa T | Year | 2007 |
| Journal | J Exp Med | Volume | 204 |
| Issue | 8 | Pages | 1945-57 |
| PubMed ID | 17646406 | Mgi Jnum | J:125959 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3760238 | Doi | 10.1084/jem.20070133 |
| Citation | Egawa T, et al. (2007) The role of the Runx transcription factors in thymocyte differentiation and in homeostasis of naive T cells. J Exp Med 204(8):1945-57 |
| abstractText | Members of the Runx family of transcriptional regulators are required for the appropriate expression of CD4 and CD8 at discrete stages of T cell development. The roles of these factors in other aspects of T cell development are unknown. We used a strategy to conditionally inactivate the genes encoding Runx1 or Runx3 at different stages of thymocyte development, demonstrating that Runx1 regulates the transitions of developing thymocytes from the CD4(-)CD8(-) double-negative stage to the CD4(+)CD8(+) double-positive (DP) stage and from the DP stage to the mature single-positive stage. Runx1 and Runx3 deficiencies caused marked reductions in mature thymocytes and T cells of the CD4(+) helper and CD8(+) cytotoxic T cell lineages, respectively. Runx1-deficient CD4(+) T cells had markedly reduced expression of the interleukin 7 receptor and exhibited shorter survival. In addition, inactivation of both Runx1 and Runx3 at the DP stages resulted in a severe block in development of CD8(+) mature thymocytes. These results indicate that Runx proteins have important roles at multiple stages of T cell development and in the homeostasis of mature T cells. |
