Nature Immunology 7, 76 - 82 (2005)
Published online: 11 December 2005; | doi:10.1038/ni1293
The thymus exports long-lived fully committed T cell precursors that can colonize primary lymphoid organsFlorence Lambolez1, Marie-Laure Arcangeli1, Anne-Marie Joret1, Valérie Pasqualetto1, Corinne Cordier1, James P Di Santo2, Benedita Rocha1
& Sophie Ezine11
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U591, Necker Institute, Medical Faculty René Descartes Paris 7501S, France. 2
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U668, Department of Immunology, Pasteur Institute, Paris 7501S, France.
Correspondence should be addressed to Benedita Rocha rocha@necker.fr Thymic export of cells is believed to be restricted to mature T cells. Here we show that the thymus also exports fully committed T cell precursors that colonize primary lymphoid organs. These precursor cells exited the thymus before T cell receptor rearrangements and colonized lymphoid organs such as the thymus and the gut. Migration of the thymic T cell–committed precursors led to permanent colonization of the gut precursor compartment, improved the capacity of gut precursors to further differentiate into T cells and was sufficient for the generation of 'euthymic like' CD8 + intraepithelial lymphocytes. These data demonstrate a new function for the thymus in peripheral seeding with T cell precursors that become long lived after thymus export.
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