Hattori N, Kawamoto H, Katsura Y
Department of Immunology, Chest Disease Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan.
J Exp Med. 1996 Nov 1;184(5):1901-8. doi: 10.1084/jem.184.5.1901.
Thymus cells of murine fetuses at day 12 of gestation are exclusively of the CD3-CD4-CD8-CD44+CD25- phenotype, which is known as a hallmark of the most immature subset of thymus cells. In the present study, we show that day 12 fetal thymus (FT) cells express Fc gamma RII/ III (FcR) at a broad range of levels on their surface. The FcR+ FT cells seem to represent T lineage cells, because a large majority of them express the T lineage specific transcription factors TCF-1 and GATA-3 as well as CD3 epsilon in the cytoplasm. Also shown is that the FcR- population contains progenitors capable of developing into not only T cells but also B and myeloid cells, whereas FcR+ progenitors are mostly committed to the T lineage. These findings indicate that thymic T lineage cells express FcR on their surface at the earliest stage of differentiation, and thus FcR is a useful marker in isolating the most immature population of murine FT cells.
妊娠第12天的小鼠胎儿胸腺细胞仅具有CD3-CD4-CD8-CD44+CD25-表型，这是胸腺细胞最不成熟亚群的一个标志。在本研究中，我们发现第12天的胎儿胸腺（FT）细胞在其表面广泛表达FcγRII/III（FcR）。FcR+FT细胞似乎代表T谱系细胞，因为其中绝大多数在细胞质中表达T谱系特异性转录因子TCF-1和GATA-3以及CD3ε。还表明，FcR-群体包含不仅能够发育成T细胞，还能发育成B细胞和髓系细胞的祖细胞，而FcR+祖细胞大多定向于T谱系。这些发现表明，胸腺T谱系细胞在分化的最早阶段就在其表面表达FcR，因此FcR是分离小鼠FT细胞最不成熟群体的有用标志物。
