title: Reduction in the developmental potential of intrathymic T cell progenitors with age.
abstract: Current models of thymic involution propose that intrinsic developmental defects in intrathymic T cell precursors do not contribute to age-related declines in thymopoiesis. This premise was reassessed in a murine model in light of the recent definition of the early T lineage progenitor (ETP), which appears to be the earliest intrathymic precursor defined to date. The results demonstrate that the frequency of ETP declines with age and their potential to reconstitute the thymus is diminished. These findings are consistent with the fact that ETP from aged mice proliferate less and have a higher rate of apoptosis than their counterparts from young animals. Taken together, these data suggest that age-associated changes in T cell precursors should be considered when attempts to rejuvenate the involuted thymus are made.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California-Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Hyeyoung
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Encarnacion
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Montecino-Rodriguez
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dorshkind
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D019070:Cell Lineage; D005260:Female; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology*