| First Author | Cowan JE | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 5498 |
| PubMed ID | 31792212 | Mgi Jnum | J:286307 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6387457 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-019-13465-y |
| Citation | Cowan JE, et al. (2019) Myc controls a distinct transcriptional program in fetal thymic epithelial cells that determines thymus growth. Nat Commun 10(1):5498 |
| abstractText | Interactions between thymic epithelial cells (TEC) and developing thymocytes are essential for T cell development, but molecular insights on TEC and thymus homeostasis are still lacking. Here we identify distinct transcriptional programs of TEC that account for their age-specific properties, including proliferation rates, engraftability and function. Further analyses identify Myc as a regulator of fetal thymus development to support the rapid increase of thymus size during fetal life. Enforced Myc expression in TEC induces the prolonged maintenance of a fetal-specific transcriptional program, which in turn extends the growth phase of the thymus and enhances thymic output; meanwhile, inducible expression of Myc in adult TEC similarly promotes thymic growth. Mechanistically, this Myc function is associated with enhanced ribosomal biogenesis in TEC. Our study thus identifies age-specific transcriptional programs in TEC, and establishes that Myc controls thymus size. |
