The Journal of Experimental Medicine
Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc.
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 170K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JEM
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Suzuki, H.
Right arrow Articles by Singer, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Suzuki, H.
Right arrow Articles by Singer, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?
© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1007/1997/7/17/ $5.00
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 186, Number 1, July 7, 1997 17-23

Articles

Commitment of Immature CD4+8+ Thymocytes to the CD4 Lineage Requires CD3 Signaling but Does Not Require Expression of Clonotypic T Cell Receptor (TCR) Chains

Harumi Suzuki*, Yoichi Shinkai{ddagger}, Lawrence G. Granger*, Frederick W. Alt{ddagger}, Paul E. Love§, and Alfred Singer*

From the * Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892; the {ddagger} Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Genetics and Pediatrics, The Children's Hospital, and the Center for Blood Research, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; and the § Laboratory of Mammalian Genes and Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland 20892

As a consequence of positive selection in the thymus, immature CD4+8+ double-positive, [DP] thymocytes selectively terminate synthesis of one coreceptor molecule and, as a result, differentiate into either CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. The decision by individual DP thymocytes to terminate synthesis of one or the other coreceptor molecule is referred to as lineage commitment. Previously, we reported that the intrathymic signals that induced commitment to the CD4 versus CD8 T cell lineages were markedly asymmetric. Notably, CD8 commitment appeared to require lineage-specific signals, whereas CD4 commitment appeared to occur in the absence of lineage-specific signals by default. Consequently, it was unclear whether CD4 commitment, as revealed by selective termination of CD8 coreceptor synthesis, occurred in all DP thymocytes, or whether CD4 commitment occurred only in T cell receptor (TCR)–CD3-signaled DP thymocytes. Here, we report that selective termination of CD8 coreceptor synthesis does not occur in DP thymocytes spontaneously. Rather, CD4 commitment in DP thymocytes requires signals transduced by either CD3 or {zeta} chains, which can signal CD4 commitment even in the absence of clonotypic TCR chains.

Address correspondence to Alfred Singer, Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Building 10, Room 4B17, Bethesda, Maryland 20892. The current address for Harumi Suzuki is the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. The current address for Yoichi Shinkai is the Department of Biology, Nippon Roche Center, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan.

1Abbreviations used in this paper: DN, double negative; DP, double positive; SP, single positive; TSA, thymic shared antigen.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search
TABLE OF CONTENTS