title: T/NK bipotent progenitors in the thymus retain the potential to generate dendritic cells.
abstract: We have previously shown that the earliest thymic progenitors retain the potential to generate T and NK cells and that they lose the bipotentiality to give rise to unipotent T and NK progenitors during the progression of intrathymic developmental stages. The present study examines the ability of these thymic progenitors for generation of dendritic cells (DC) with a new clonal assay that is capable of determining the developmental potential for DC in addition to T cells and NK cells. We found that the large majority of the T/NK bipotential progenitors in the earliest population of fetal thymus was able to generate DC. Although the DC potential is lost with the progression of the differentiation stage, some of the T/NK bipotential progenitors still retain their DC potential even at the CD44(+)CD25(+) stage.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000276:immunology; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000276:immunology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002999:Clone Cells; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D005333:Fetus; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*