Thymic microenvironments, 3-D versus 2-D?

Lympho-stromal interactions in the thymus crucially de- termine the fate of developing T cells. Epithelial cells, inter- digitating reticular cells, macrophages and fibroblasts all play a role in the shaping of the T cell repertoire. Recently published evidence shows that lympho-stromal interaction...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Seminars in immunology 1999-02, Vol.11 (1), p.57-64
Main Authors: van Ewijk, Willem, Wang, BaoPing, Hollander, Georg, Kawamoto, Hiroshi, Spanopoulou, Eugenia, Itoi, Manami, Amagai, Takashi, Jiang, Yu-Fei, Germeraad, Wilfred T.V., Chen, Wei-Fung, Katsura, Yoshimoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cell Communication - immunology
Cell Differentiation - immunology
Humans
Stromal Cells - cytology
Stromal Cells - immunology
T-Lymphocytes - cytology
T-Lymphocytes - immunology
Thymus Gland - cytology
Thymus Gland - embryology
Thymus Gland - immunology
thymus, microenvironments, epithelial cells, crosstalk, lympho-stromal interaction
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Summary:Lympho-stromal interactions in the thymus crucially de- termine the fate of developing T cells. Epithelial cells, inter- digitating reticular cells, macrophages and fibroblasts all play a role in the shaping of the T cell repertoire. Recently published evidence shows that lympho-stromal interaction acts bi-directional. Developing T cell themselves, at different stages of differentiation, control the microarchitecture of thymic microenvironments, a phenomenon designated as `crosstalk'. This paper reviews experiments showing that developing T cells crosstalk to different thymic epithelial cells in a stepwise fashion. In this way, correctly organized thymic microenvironments guarantee normal thymopoiesis.
ISSN:1044-5323
1096-3618
DOI:10.1006/smim.1998.0158