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A positive look at double-negative thymocytes

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 2, pages 888–897 (2002)Cite this article

Key Points

  • Despite advances in transgenic mouse technology, our understanding of early aspects of T-cell development from CD4−CD8− double-negative progenitors in the thymus is still incomplete.

  • As a cell population, double-negative thymocytes are heterogeneous, and a consensus has not been reached on how their content of T-cell progenitors should be identified.

  • Flow cytometry is an ideal experimental approach for the study of lymphocyte development, and, with care, additional information can be obtained regarding lineage inter-relationships of cells.

  • As shown for the analysis of early B-cell development, molecular and cellular approaches at the single-cell level can be applied; similar approaches need to be carried out for the phenotypically defined T-cell progenitor subsets.

Abstract

In some respects, our understanding of the cellular and molecular aspects of early T-cell differentiation is lagging behind that of B cells. Papers describing gene-knockout and reporter-transgenic mice in which thymocyte development is affected are often difficult to interpret. Progress in this field will be hampered unless a more detailed phenotypic and molecular analysis of progenitor thymocytes at the single-cell level is carried out.

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Figure 1: Comparative scheme of early T- and B-cell development.
Figure 2: Preparation of double-negative thymocytes.
Figure 3: Phenotypic analysis of purified double-negative cells.

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Acknowledgements

R.C. thanks INSERM, in particular P. Marche, for support. Apologies to all colleagues whose work could not be cited owing to space constraints.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U548 INSERM, CEA-G, 17 rue des Martyrs, Grenoble, F-38054, France

    Rod Ceredig

  2. the Department of Immunology, University of Basel, Pharmacenter, Klingelbergstrasse 50–70, CH-4065, Basel, Switzerland

    Ton Rolink

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  1. Rod Ceredig
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Correspondence to Rod Ceredig.

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DATABASES

LocusLink

B220

Bcl-2

CD3ɛ

CD4

CD8

CD11b

CD11c

CD19

CD24

CD25

CD43

CD44

CD62L

CD90

CD117

CD122

CD127

Flt3

Ikaros

IL-2

IL-2Rα

IL-7

IL-7R

lunatic fringe

NK1.1

Notch

Pax

Pax5

Rag1

SCF

Tcf1

λ5

Swiss-Prot

GFP

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Ceredig, R., Rolink, T. A positive look at double-negative thymocytes. Nat Rev Immunol 2, 888–897 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri937

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nri937

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