Three chemokine receptors cooperatively regulate homing of hematopoietic progenitors to the embryonic mouse thymus.

ABSTRACT: The thymus lacks self-renewing hematopoietic cells, and thymopoiesis fails rapidly when the migration of progenitor cells to the thymus ceases. Hence, the process of thymus homing is an essential step for T-cell development and cellular immunity. Despite decades of research, the molecular details of thymus homing have not been elucidated fully. Here, we show that chemotaxis is the key mechanism regulating thymus homing in the mouse embryo. We determined the number of early thymic progenitors in the thymic rudiments of mice deficient for one, two, or three of the chemokine receptor genes, chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 9 (Ccr9), chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 7 (Ccr7), and chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (Cxcr4). In the absence of all three chemokine receptors, thymus homing was reduced

SUBMITTER: Calderon L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3088600 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature