Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Boehm, Thomas
• Scheu, Stefanie
• Pfeffer, Klaus
• Bleul, Conrad C.

Titel

Thymic Medullary Epithelial Cell Differentiation, Thymocyte Emigration, and the Control of Autoimmunity Require Lympho–Epithelial Cross Talk via LTβR

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of experimental medicine, 2003-09, Vol.198 (5), p.757-769

Ort / Verlag

The Rockefeller University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Electronic Journals Library - Freely accessible e-journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Thymocytes depend on the interaction with thymic epithelial cells for the generation of a diverse, nonautoreactive T cell repertoire. In turn, thymic epithelial cells acquire their three-dimensional cellular organization via instructive signals from developing thymocytes. The nature of these signals has been elusive so far. We show that thymocytes and medullary epithelial cells (MECs) communicate via the lymphotoxin β receptor (LTβR) signaling axis. Normal differentiation of thymic MECs requires LTβR ligand on thymocytes and LTβR together with nuclear factor–κB-inducing kinase (Nik) in thymic epithelial cells. Impaired lympho–epithelial cross talk in the absence of the LTβR causes aberrant differentiation and reduced numbers of thymic MECs, leads to the retention of mature T lymphocytes, and is associated with autoimmune phenomena, suggesting an unexpected role for LTβR signaling in central tolerance induction.