title: On the brink of becoming a T cell.
abstract: Recent studies provide fresh insight into the mechanisms by which precursor cells are committed to and develop within the T-lymphocyte lineage. Precursor/product studies have identified developmental stages between that of the pluripotent hematopoietic stem cell and thymocytes committed to the T lineage. Specific ligands and signaling pathways interacting with the Notch-1 receptor and its ability to influence commitment within the lymphoid lineage have been described. Although the structural features or putative ligands endowing the pre-TCR with constitutive signaling capacity remain elusive, numerous distal mediators of pre-TCR signaling have been identified. It remains for the future to determine what roles they may have in survival, proliferation, lineage commitment and allelic exclusion of TCR genes. Receptor editing and lineage commitment of alphabeta T cells still represent controversial topics that need further study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borowski
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Fotini
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gounari
authors.forename: Loralee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Haughn
authors.forename: Iannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aifantis
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: von Boehmer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D019891:Leukopoiesis / Q000502:physiology; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta