The earliest thymic T cell progenitors sustain B cell and myeloid lineage potential

Journal article

The stepwise commitment from hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow to T lymphocyte-restricted progenitors in the thymus represents a paradigm for understanding the requirement for distinct extrinsic cues during different stages of lineage restriction from multipotent to lineage-restricted progenitors. However, the commitment stage at which progenitors migrate from the bone marrow to the thymus remains unclear. Here we provide functional and molecular evidence at the single-cell level that the earliest progenitors in the neonatal thymus had combined granulocyte-monocyte, T lymphocyte and B lymphocyte lineage potential but not megakaryocyte-erythroid lineage potential. These potentials were identical to those of candidate thymus-seeding progenitors in the bone marrow, which were closely related at the molecular level. Our findings establish the distinct lineage-restriction stage at which the T cell lineage-commitment process transits from the bone marrow to the remote thymus. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

Authors: Luc, S; Luis, T; Boukarabila, H; Macaulay, I; Buza-Vidas, N

• Journal: Nature Immunology
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 412-419
• Publication date: 2012-04-01
• DOI: 10.1038/ni.2255
• EISSN: 1529-2916
• ISSN: 1529-2908
• Language: English