Intrathymic Selection and Defects in the Thymic Epithelial Cell Development

Intimate interactions between thymic epithelial cells (TECs) and thymocytes (T) have been repeatedly reported as essential for performing intrathymic T-cell education. Nevertheless, it has been described that animals exhibiting defects in these interactions were capable of a proper positive and nega...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cells (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2020-10, Vol.9 (10), p.2226
Main Authors: García-Ceca, Javier, Montero-Herradón, Sara, Zapata, Agustín G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antigens
Cell adhesion
Cell development (Biology)
Cell differentiation
Eph/ephrins
Ephrins
Epithelial cells
Immunosurveillance
Ligands
Lymphocytes T
Peptides
Physiological aspects
Physiological research
Population
regulatory T-cells
Review
thymic epithelial cells
thymocyte education
Thymocytes
Thymus
Thymus gland
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Summary:Intimate interactions between thymic epithelial cells (TECs) and thymocytes (T) have been repeatedly reported as essential for performing intrathymic T-cell education. Nevertheless, it has been described that animals exhibiting defects in these interactions were capable of a proper positive and negative T-cell selection. In the current review, we first examined distinct types of TECs and their possible role in the immune surveillance. However, EphB-deficient thymi that exhibit profound thymic epithelial (TE) alterations do not exhibit important immunological defects. Eph and their ligands, the ephrins, are implicated in cell attachment/detachment and govern, therefore, TEC–T interactions. On this basis, we hypothesized that a few normal TE areas could be enough for a proper phenotypical and functional maturation of T lymphocytes. Then, we evaluated in vivo how many TECs would be necessary for supporting a normal T-cell differentiation, concluding that a significantly low number of TEC are still capable of supporting normal T lymphocyte maturation, whereas with fewer numbers, T-cell maturation is not possible.
ISSN:2073-4409
2073-4409
DOI:10.3390/cells9102226