| First Author | Houston EG Jr | Year | 2012 |
| Journal | Cell Immunol | Volume | 274 |
| Issue | 1-2 | Pages | 39-45 |
| PubMed ID | 22398309 | Mgi Jnum | J:188179 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5439666 | Doi | 10.1016/j.cellimm.2012.02.005 |
| Citation | Houston EG Jr, et al. (2012) Homeostatic signals do not drive post-thymic T cell maturation. Cell Immunol 274(1-2):39-45 |
| abstractText | Recent thymic emigrants, the youngest T cells in the lymphoid periphery, undergo a 3 week-long period of functional and phenotypic maturation before being incorporated into the pool of mature, naive T cells. Previous studies indicate that this maturation requires T cell exit from the thymus and access to secondary lymphoid organs, but is MHC-independent. We now show that post-thymic T cell maturation is independent of homeostatic and costimulatory pathways, requiring neither signals delivered by IL-7 nor CD80/86. Furthermore, while CCR7/CCL19,21-regulated homing of recent thymic emigrants to the T cell zones within the secondary lymphoid organs is not required for post-thymic T cell maturation, an intact dendritic cell compartment modulates this process. It is thus clear that, unlike T cell development and homeostasis, post-thymic maturation is focused not on interrogating the T cell receptor or the cell's responsiveness to homeostatic or costimulatory signals, but on some as yet unrecognized property. |
