The thymus exports long-lived fully committed T cell precursors that can colonize primary lymphoid organs

Florence Lambolez (1) , Marie-Laure Arcangeli (1) , Anne-Marie Joret (1) , Valerie Pasqualetto (2, 1) , Corinne Cordier (3) , James P Di Santo (4) , Benedita Rocha (1) , Sophie Ezine (1)

1 U591 - Differenciation Thymique et Physiologie des Lymphocytes T
2 UPD5 - Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5
3 IRNEM - IFR Necker-Enfants Malades
4 Immunité Innée

Thymic export of cells is believed to be restricted to mature T cells. Here we show that the thymus also exports fully committed T cell precursors that colonize primary lymphoid organs. These precursor cells exited the thymus before T cell receptor rearrangements and colonized lymphoid organs such as the thymus and the gut. Migration of the thymic T cell–committed precursors led to permanent colonization of the gut precursor compartment, improved the capacity of gut precursors to further differentiate into T cells and was sufficient for the generation of 'euthymic like' CD8αα+ intraepithelial lymphocytes. These data demonstrate a new function for the thymus in peripheral seeding with T cell precursors that become long lived after thymus export.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Immunology

Florence Lambolez, Marie-Laure Arcangeli, Anne-Marie Joret, Valerie Pasqualetto, Corinne Cordier, et al.. The thymus exports long-lived fully committed T cell precursors that can colonize primary lymphoid organs. Nature Immunology, 2006, 7 (1), pp.76-82. ⟨10.1038/ni1293⟩. ⟨hal-01996470⟩