Aire Disruption Influences the Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cell Transcriptome and Interaction With Thymocytes.

ABSTRACT: The function of medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is associated with thymocyte adhesion, which is crucial for the negative selection of autoreactive thymocytes in the thymus. This process represents the root of central tolerance of self-components and prevents the onset of autoimmune diseases. Since thymic epithelia correspond to an important target of donor T cells during the onset of chronic graft-vs-host-disease, mTEC-thymocyte adhesion may have implications for alloimmunity. The Aire and Fezf2 genes function as transcriptome controllers in mTECs. The central question of this study is whether there is a mutual relationship between mTEC-thymocyte adhesion and the control of the mTEC transcriptome and whether Aire is involved in this process. Here, we show that in

SUBMITTER: Speck-Hernandez CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5949327 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature