title: T Cell Adolescence: Maturation Events Beyond Positive Selection.
abstract: Single-positive thymocytes that successfully complete positive and negative selection must still undergo one final step, generally termed T cell maturation, before they gain functional competency and enter the long-lived T cell pool. Maturation initiates after positive selection in single-positive thymocytes and continues in the periphery in recent thymic emigrants, before these newly produced T cells gain functional competency and are ready to participate in the immune response as peripheral naive T cells. Recent work using genetically altered mice demonstrates that T cell maturation is not a single process, but a series of steps that occur independently and sequentially after positive selection. This review focuses on the changes that occur during T cell maturation, as well as the molecules and pathways that are critical at each step.
authors.affiliation: Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455; and.
authors.forename: Kristin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Hogquist
authors.affiliation: Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455; and.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905.
authors.forename: Fan-Chi
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 hogqu001@umn.edu shapiro.virginia1@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: Virginia Smith
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Shapiro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D002455:Cell Division; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D060966:Clonal Selection, Antigen-Mediated; D006801:Humans; D053218:Receptors, Death Domain / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D060168:Thymocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D053218:Receptors, Death Domain