Deftos M L, Huang E, Ojala E W, Forbush K A, Bevan M J
Department of Immunology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
Immunity. 2000 Jul;13(1):73-84. doi: 10.1016/s1074-7613(00)00009-1.
Notch proteins regulate many developmental processes. Notch1 is highly expressed on thymocytes, but its role in regulating their development is not known. We show that activation of Notch1 signaling in CD4+CD8+ double positive thymocytes promotes the maturation of both CD4+ and CD8+ single positive thymocytes and that this occurs in the absence of interactions between the T cell receptor and MHC molecules expressed on thymic epithelial cells. We have also identified several genes that are transcriptionally regulated by Notch1 in T cells and show that they are upregulated during maturation into both single positive lineages. These observations suggest that Notch1 signaling plays a role in promoting maturation into both the CD4 and CD8 T cell lineages.
Notch蛋白调控许多发育过程。Notch1在胸腺细胞上高度表达,但其在调控胸腺细胞发育中的作用尚不清楚。我们发现,CD4+CD8+双阳性胸腺细胞中Notch1信号的激活促进了CD4+和CD8+单阳性胸腺细胞的成熟,并且这一过程发生在不存在T细胞受体与胸腺上皮细胞上表达的MHC分子相互作用的情况下。我们还鉴定了几个在T细胞中受Notch1转录调控的基因,并表明它们在成熟为两种单阳性谱系的过程中上调。这些观察结果表明,Notch1信号在促进向CD4和CD8 T细胞谱系的成熟中发挥作用。