Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 264 John Morgan Building 3620 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Curr Top Microbiol Immunol. 2014;373:87-111. doi: 10.1007/82_2013_324.
The continuous production of T lymphocytes requires that hematopoietic progenitors developing in the bone marrow migrate to the thymus. Rare progenitors egress from the bone marrow into the circulation, then traffic via the blood to the thymus. It is now evident that thymic settling is tightly regulated by selectin ligands, chemokine receptors, and integrins, among other factors. Identification of these signals has enabled progress in identifying specific populations of hematopoietic progenitors that can settle the thymus. Understanding the nature of progenitor cells and the molecular mechanisms involved in thymic settling may allow for therapeutic manipulation of this process, and improve regeneration of the T lineage in patients with impaired T cell numbers.
T 淋巴细胞的连续产生要求骨髓中发育的造血祖细胞迁移到胸腺。少数祖细胞从骨髓中逸出到循环中，然后通过血液流向胸腺。现在很明显，胸腺定居受到选择素配体、趋化因子受体和整合素等其他因素的严格调节。这些信号的鉴定使人们能够鉴定出可以定居胸腺的特定造血祖细胞群体。了解祖细胞的性质和参与胸腺定居的分子机制可能允许对这个过程进行治疗性操作，并改善数量减少的 T 细胞患者中 T 谱系的再生。
