Publication Date:
2008-04-11
Description:
There exists controversy over the nature of haematopoietic progenitors of T cells. Most T cells develop in the thymus, but the lineage potential of thymus-colonizing progenitors is unknown. One approach to resolving this question is to determine the lineage potentials of the earliest thymic progenitors (ETPs). Previous work has shown that ETPs possess T and natural killer lymphoid potentials, and rare subsets of ETPs also possess B lymphoid potential, suggesting an origin from lymphoid-restricted progenitor cells. However, whether ETPs also possess myeloid potential is unknown. Here we show that nearly all ETPs in adult mice possess both T and myeloid potential in clonal assays. The existence of progenitors possessing T and myeloid potential within the thymus is incompatible with the current dominant model of haematopoiesis, in which T cells are proposed to arise from lymphoid-. Our results indicate that alternative models for lineage commitment during haematopoiesis must be considered.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bell, J Jeremiah -- Bhandoola, Avinash -- England -- Nature. 2008 Apr 10;452(7188):764-7. doi: 10.1038/nature06840.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18401411" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Cell Lineage
;
Cells, Cultured
;
Coculture Techniques
;
Dendritic Cells/cytology
;
Female
;
Granulocytes/cytology
;
*Hematopoiesis
;
Hematopoietic Stem Cells/*cytology/metabolism
;
Macrophages/cytology
;
Mice
;
Models, Biological
;
Myeloid Cells/*cytology/metabolism
;
Stromal Cells/cytology
;
T-Lymphocytes/*cytology/metabolism
;
Thymus Gland/*cytology
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
