| First Author | Brunk F | Year | 2017 |
| Journal | Eur J Immunol | Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 7 | Pages | 1153-1159 |
| PubMed ID | 28439878 | Mgi Jnum | J:249605 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5922115 | Doi | 10.1002/eji.201747006 |
| Citation | Brunk F, et al. (2017) Dissecting and modeling the emergent murine TEC compartment during ontogeny. Eur J Immunol 47(7):1153-1159 |
| abstractText | The origin of the thymic epithelium, i.e. the cortical (cTEC) and medullary (mTEC) epithelial cells, from bipotent stem cells through TEC progenitors and lineage-specific progeny still remains poorly understood. We sought to obtain an unbiased view of the incipient emergence of TEC subsets by following embryonic TEC development based on co-expression of EpCAM, CD80 and MHC class II (MHCII) on non-hematopoietic (CD45- ) thymic stromal cells in wild-type BL6 mice. Using a combination of ex vivo analysis, Re-aggregate Thymic Organ Culture (RTOC) reconstitution assays and mathematical modeling, we traced emergent lineage commitment in murine embryonic TECs. Both experimental and mathematical datasets supported the following developmental sequence: MHCII- CD80- --> MHCIIlo CD80- --> MHCIIhi CD80- --> MHCIIhi CD80hi TECs, whereby MHCIIhi CD80- and MHCIIhi CD80hi TECs bear features of cTECs and mTECs respectively. These emergent MHCIIhi CD80- cTECs directly generate mature MHCIIhi CD80hi mTECs in vivo and in vitro, thus supporting the asynchronous model of TEC lineage commitment. |
