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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1007/1997/3/875/ $5.00
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 185, Number 5, March 3, 1997 875-884

Articles

Identification of a Committed T Cell Precursor Population in Adult Human Peripheral Blood

Ludovica Bruno*, Pieter Res{ddagger}, Mark Dessing*, Marina Cella*, and Hergen Spits{ddagger}

From the * Basel Institute for Immunology, 4005 Basel, Switzerland; {ddagger} The Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Here, we report data concerning the discovery in adult human peripheral blood of a precursor cell population able to differentiate into CD4+CD3+{alpha}β+ mature T cells. These cells, which represent 0.1–0.5% of total peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), express substantial levels of CD4, but lack CD3 surface expression. At a molecular level, they express the pre-T cell receptor {alpha} (pT{alpha}) gene, CD3-{gamma}, CD-{delta} and CD-{varepsilon}, and RAG-1 recombination enzyme and have initiated rearrangements in the T cell receptor (TCR)-β locus (D–J). Moreover, low levels of CD3{varepsilon} protein, but not of TCR-β chain, can be detected in their cytoplasm. Our results suggest that CD4+CD3– cells identified in peripheral blood are different from CD3–CD4+CD8– thymocytes and may contain precursors of an extrathymic T cell differentiation pathway.

The Basel Institute for Immunology was founded and is supported by F. Hoffmann–La Roche, Limited, Basel, Switzerland.

Address corespondence to Ludovica Bruno, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Lymphocyte Molecular Biology Laboratory, Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3PX London, UK.

1Abbreviations used in this paper: ACDU, automatic cell deposit unit technique; CB, cord blood; DN, double negative; DP, double positive; FTOC, fetal thymic organ culture; GL, germline; HS, human serum; ISP, immature single positive; MMLV, murine maloney leukemia virus; pT{alpha}, pre-T cell receptor {alpha} gene; SP, single positive.


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