title: Intercellular Protein Transfer from Thymocytes to Thymic Epithelial Cells.
abstract: Promiscuous expression of tissue restricted antigens (TRAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is crucial for negative selection of self-reactive T cells to establish central tolerance. Intercellular transfer of self-peptide-MHC complexes from mTECs to thymic dendritic cells (DCs) allows DCs to acquire TRAs, which in turn contributes to negative selection and regulatory T cell generation. However, mTECs are unlikely to express all TRAs, such as immunoglobulins generated only in B cells after somatic recombination, hyper-mutation, or class-switches. We report here that both mTECs and cortical TECs can efficiently acquire not only cell surface but also intracellular proteins from thymocytes. This reveals a previously unappreciated intercellular sharing of molecules from thymocytes to TECs, which may broaden the TRA inventory in mTECs for establishing a full spectrum of central tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, United States of America.|Laboratory Medicine Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510515, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Xia
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510515, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Rong
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, United States of America.|Department of Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, United States of America.|Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapies Program, Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ping
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Zhong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism*; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000378:metabolism; D060168:Thymocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell