Lecture 8 - T Cell Development 1 Flashcards
what do immune cells arise from?
multi-potent hematopoietic stem cells
describe the progression from mutli-potent hematopoietic stem cells to specific immune cells
series of differentiation steps with increasingly restricted differentiation potential to make specific cells
what happened when adult mice had their thymus removed?
nothing
what happened when neonatal mice had their thymus removed?
in sterile environment –> nothing
in non-sterile environment –> died from infection
what did they know about the thymus and lymphocytes before the discovery of thymus?
knew that lymphocytes existed but didn’t realize there were T and B cells
initially thought thymus was “graveyard” for lymphocytes
describe the difference of T cells in mice and humans in terms of when mature T cells can be detected
mature T cells can be found at birth in mice
mature T cells can be found at 14-15 weeks of pregnancy in humans
what would happen if you remove the thymus from a human at birth?
they would be fine –> since mature T cells are there by 14-15 weeks of pregnancy, the baby would have T cells
what are the intermediate cells in T cell development?
DN1 –> DN2 –> DN3 –> DN4 –> DP –> SP
describe a flow cytometry plot of CD4 vs CD8 for T cell precursors
looks like a bird
how can we gate the DN population of cells to look at DN1 vs DN2 vs DN3 vs DN4
Use CD44 vs CD25 to look at specific DN populations
what are the 6 general steps for T cell maturation?
- Progenitor seeding of the thymus
- T cell lineage commitment
- B-selection
- Positive selection
- CD4 vs CD8 cell fate choice
- Impact of basal self-reactivity on T cell function
what cells seed the thymus? where do they come from in fetal vs adult mice?
multi-potent HSCs seed the thymus
- in fetal mice from liver
- in adult mice from BM
describe T cells in fetus vs adult mouse
fetus: invariant with less diverse Ag receptor
adult: more specific and very diverse T cell population
why are fetal T cells more invariant and less specific?
they don’t have fully functioning immune system so fast-acting, non-specific cells (more immune-like) are better to get rid of infection
what allows for the different types of T cells in fetal vs adult mice?
Lin28 and let-7 interaction
where is Lin28 expressed?
Lin28 is expressed in HSC progenitors in fetal liver
what is the role of Lin28?
Lin28 is an RNA-binding protein that inhibits the maturation of the let-7 miRNA
Let-7 levels in fetal vs adult mice
fetus has Lin28 so low let-7 levels
adult has no Lin28 so high let-7 levels
what happens when there’s forced expression of Lin28 in adult bone marrow?
it is sufficient to cause differentiation of SOME fetal T cell subtypes
what happens when fetal progenitors are transferred into an adult thymus?
can support SOME fetal T cell subtypes
what’s the next step once progenitors have been seeded in the thymus?
commitment to the T cell lineage
what is known as the “master regulator” of T cell fate?
Notch
4 Notch receptors and 5 Notch ligands
RECEPTORS:
- Notch1
- Notch2
- Notch3
- Notch4
LIGANDS:
- Jagged 1
- Jagged 2
- Delta 1
- Delta 4
- Delta 3
how does Notch signaling work? (3 steps)
- Thymic epithelial cell has notch ligand which binds notch receptor on thymocyte
- Interaction forces intracellular domain of notch to be released
- drives T cell fate