| First Author | Ramond C | Year | 2014 |
| Journal | Nat Immunol | Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 27-35 |
| PubMed ID | 24317038 | Mgi Jnum | J:209299 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5566937 | Doi | 10.1038/ni.2782 |
| Citation | Ramond C, et al. (2014) Two waves of distinct hematopoietic progenitor cells colonize the fetal thymus. Nat Immunol 15(1):27-35 |
| abstractText | The generation of T cells depends on the migration of hematopoietic progenitor cells to the thymus throughout life. The identity of the thymus-settling progenitor cells has been a matter of considerable debate. Here we found that thymopoiesis was initiated by a first wave of T cell lineage-restricted progenitor cells with limited capacity for population expansion but accelerated differentiation into mature T cells. They gave rise to alphabeta and gammadelta T cells that constituted Vgamma3(+) dendritic epithelial T cells. Thymopoiesis was subsequently maintained by less-differentiated progenitor cells that retained the potential to develop into B cells and myeloid cells. In that second wave, which started before birth, progenitor cells had high proliferative capacity but delayed differentiation capacity and no longer gave rise to embryonic gammadelta T cells. Our work reconciles conflicting hypotheses on the nature of thymus-settling progenitor cells. |
