Intercellular Protein Transfer from Thymocytes to Thymic Epithelial Cells.

Wang, Hong-Xia

Qiu, Yu-Rong

Zhong, Xiao-Ping

United States

2016-04-13T21:38:44Z

2016

Promiscuous expression of tissue restricted antigens (TRAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is crucial for negative selection of self-reactive T cells to establish central tolerance. Intercellular transfer of self-peptide-MHC complexes from mTECs to thymic dendritic cells (DCs) allows DCs to acquire TRAs, which in turn contributes to negative selection and regulatory T cell generation. However, mTECs are unlikely to express all TRAs, such as immunoglobulins generated only in B cells after somatic recombination, hyper-mutation, or class-switches. We report here that both mTECs and cortical TECs can efficiently acquire not only cell surface but also intracellular proteins from thymocytes. This reveals a previously unappreciated intercellular sharing of molecules from thymocytes to TECs, which may broaden the TRA inventory in mTECs for establishing a full spectrum of central tolerance.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27022746

PONE-D-16-05335

1932-6203

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11812

eng

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

PLoS One

10.1371/journal.pone.0152641

Animals

Epithelial Cells

Extracellular Space

Hematopoiesis

Luminescent Proteins

Major Histocompatibility Complex

Mice, Inbred C57BL

Proteins

Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell

Thymocytes

Thymus Gland

Intercellular Protein Transfer from Thymocytes to Thymic Epithelial Cells.

Journal article

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27022746

e0152641

3

Basic Science Departments

Clinical Science Departments

Duke

Duke Cancer Institute

Immunology

Institutes and Centers

Pediatrics

Pediatrics, Allergy and Immunology

School of Medicine

Published online

11