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Positive selection‐associated skin‐homing of fetal thymic gamma/delta T cells
Author(s) -
Jin Yan,
Xia Mingcan,
Saylor Christina,
Xiong Na
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.843.13
Subject(s) - homing (biology) , biology , immunology , t cell receptor , lymphocyte homing receptor , intraepithelial lymphocyte , chemokine receptor , cd8 , microbiology and biotechnology , chemokine , negative selection , t cell , immune system , cell , cell adhesion , ecology , biochemistry , genetics , genome , gene
Murine skin‐specific intraepithelial γδ T cells (sIELs) are prototypic non‐lymphoid tissue specific “innate lymphocytes”. Nearly all sIELs express identical Vγ3/Vδ1 γδ T cell receptors (TCR) and originate from the fetal thymus. Previously, we found that positive selection of γδ T cells in the fetal thymus is associated with a unique expression profile of chemokine receptors, such as upregulation of potentially important skin‐homing receptor CCR10, suggesting that a unique selection process of the fetal thymic γδ T cells determines their homing properties and peripheral localization. Confirming this, we now generated CCR10 knockout mice and found that development of γδ T cells in the skin, but not in other tissues, were severely impaired in these mice. Furthermore, we found that positively selected fetal thymic γδ T cells developed into sIELs without requirement of further peripheral TCR/ligand interaction, demonstrating that the central selection process of γδ T cells in the fetal thymus is sufficient to direct their migration and expansion in the skin. These findings may serve a paradigm for understanding development of other tissue‐specific “innate lymphocyte”, including γδ, NK, CD8αα, mucosal associated invariant T cells and B1 B cells, a group of important but poorly understood immune cells.