The thymus and the immune system: layered levels of control.
Control points of normal thymopoiesis may provide insights into strategies for interrupting cell interactions in thymomas which appear to maintain active T cell production. Thymus production of T cells represents one of two pathways by which peripheral T cell populations are maintained or, if lost, regenerated. The production of T cells by the thymus results from a series of thymus epithelial cell (TEC) - thymocyte interactions from entry of thymocyte precursors into the thymus to release of mature naïve single positive T cells into the periphery. Within this series of interactions, certain control points have been identified, all of which act through TEC to modulate thymopoiesis.
Lee
Diana K
DK
Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Hakim
Frances T
FT
Gress
Ronald E
RE
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000502:physiology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D013945:Thymoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*