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Signalling through TEC kinases regulates conventional versus innate CD8+ T-cell development

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 7, pages 479–485 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent data from three laboratories have identified the TEC kinases, ITK and RLK, as crucial regulators of CD8+ T-cell development into the conventional lymphocyte lineage. In the absence of ITK and RLK, CD4+CD8+ thymocytes upregulate the T-box transcription factor eomesodermin, and develop into mature CD8+ T cells that resemble memory cells, exhibit immediate effector cytokine production and depend on IL-15. Furthermore, the selection of these non-conventional 'innate' T cells results from interactions with haematopoietic cells in the thymus. These findings lead to the hypothesis that altered TCR signalling, together with distinct co-stimulatory signals, is the basis for the development of non-conventional T-cell lineages.

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Figure 1: Multiple lineages of mature T cells develop from CD4+CD8+ thymocyte progenitors.
Figure 2: Model proposing distinct requirements for conventional versus innate T cell development in the thymus.

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Acknowledgements

I thank J. Kang, P. Schwartzberg, M. Felices, and A. Prince for helpful discussions. This work was supported by grants from the NIH (AI37584) and the Center for Disease Control (CI000101).

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  1. Leslie J. Berg is at the Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655 USA. leslie.berg@umassmed.edu,

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Berg, L. Signalling through TEC kinases regulates conventional versus innate CD8+ T-cell development. Nat Rev Immunol 7, 479–485 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri2091

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