Developmental conversion of thymocyte-attracting cells into self-antigen-displaying cells in embryonic thymus medulla epithelium.

ABSTRACT: Thymus medulla epithelium establishes immune self-tolerance and comprises diverse cellular subsets. Functionally relevant medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) include a self-antigen-displaying subset that exhibits genome-wide promiscuous gene expression promoted by the nuclear protein Aire and that resembles a mosaic of extrathymic cells including mucosal tuft cells. An additional mTEC subset produces the chemokine CCL21, thereby attracting positively selected thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla. Both self-antigen-displaying and thymocyte-attracting mTEC subsets are essential for self-tolerance. Here we identify a developmental pathway by which mTECs gain their diversity in functionally distinct subsets. We show that CCL21-expressing mTECs arise early during thymus ontogeny. Fat

SUBMITTER: Ohigashi I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10592888 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature