The late stage of T cell development within mouse thymus.

After positive selection and lineage commitment, the TCR alphabeta+ CD4/CD8 SP medullary thymocytes migrate into and reside in thymic medulla, where they undergo an ordered program of late stage of T cell functional maturation and negative selection to delete self-reactive clones by apoptosis. Accomplishment of this final differentiation pathway, a physiological T cell repertoire is formed: T cells acquire immunocompetence to respond to foreign antigens and tolerance to self-antigens, ready for the emigration to homing to the T cell regions of peripheral lymphoid organs and tissues. In this review, emphases are put on introducing the approaches applied in this area and our own observations. Basically, we have analyzed the late stage of medullary thymocyte phenotypic differentiation pathways of both CD4 SP and CD8 SP medullary thymocytes and the concomitant functional maturation pathway, in particular, of CD4 SP thymocytes. It is to provide a standard to compare the functional capacity of the cells at the developmental stages induced by different conditions. The cellular and molecular basis of this differentiation process has been partially described.