| First Author | Tang H | Year | 2016 |
| Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 6 |
| Pages | 30448 | PubMed ID | 27469302 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:259975 | Mgi Id | MGI:6102016 |
| Doi | 10.1038/srep30448 | Citation | Tang H, et al. (2016) Thymic DCs derived IL-27 regulates the final maturation of CD4(+) SP thymocytes. Sci Rep 6:30448 |
| abstractText | IL-27, as a pleiotropic cytokine, promotes the differentiation of naive T cells to Th1, while suppressing Th2 and Th17 differentiation in the periphery. However, the role of IL-27 in the thymocyte development remains unknown. Here we showed that IL-27 was highly expressed in thymic plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) while its receptor expression was mainly detected in CD4(+) single-positive (SP) thymocytes. Deletion of the p28 subunit in DCs resulted in a reduction of the most mature Qa-2(+) subsets of CD4(+) SP T cells. This defect was rescued by intrathymic administration of exogenous IL-27. In vitro differentiation assay further demonstrated that IL-27 alone was able to drive the maturation of the newly generated 6C10(+)CD69(+)CD4(+) SP cells into Qa-2(+) cells. Collectively, this study has revealed an important role of thymic DCs-derived IL-27 in the regulation of the phenotypic maturation of CD4(+) SP thymocytes. |
