THYMIC ORIGIN OF EMBRYONIC INTESTINAL GAMMA/DELTA T-CELLS

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Dominique Dunon, Basel Institute for Immunology; Max Cooper, Emory University; Beat A. Imhof, Basel Institute for Immunology
• Language: English
• Date: 1993-02-01
• Publisher: Rockefeller University Press
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © Rockefeller University Press.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1084/jem.177.2.257
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Experimental Medicine
• ISSN: 0022-1007
• Volume: 177
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 257
• End Page: 263
• Grant/Funding Information: The Basel Institute for Immunology was founded and is supported by F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co. Ltd., Switzerland. This work was supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service National Institutes of Health grant AI-130879. Max Cooper is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• Keywords: CD3+; LOCALIZATION; GUT EPITHELIUM; RECEPTOR-GAMMA-DELTA; DIFFERENTIATION; ALPHA-BETA; Science & Technology; EXPRESSION; CHICK-QUAIL CHIMERAS; INTRAEPITHELIAL LYMPHOCYTES; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Immunology; IDENTIFICATION; Research & Experimental Medicine
• Research Categories: Biology, Microbiology; Health Sciences, Immunology

Abstract

Current evidence suggests both thymic and extrathymic origins for T cells. Studies in mice favor an in situ origin for a prominent population of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes that express gamma/delta T cell receptor (TCR). This developmental issue is explored in an avian model in which the gamma/delta lymphocytes constitute a major T cell subpopulation that is accessible for study during the earliest stages of lymphocyte development. In the chick embryo, cells bearing the gamma/delta TCR appear first in the thymus where they reach peak levels on days 14-15 of embryogenesis, just 2 d before gamma/delta T cells appear in the intestine. Using two congenic chick strains, one of which expresses the ov antigen, we studied the origin and kinetics of intestinal colonization by gamma/delta T cells. The embryonic gamma/delta+ thymocytes homed to the intestine where they survived for months, whereas an embryonic gamma/delta- thymocyte population enriched in thymocyte precursors failed to give rise to intestinal gamma/delta+ T cells. Embryonic hemopoietic tissues, bone marrow, and spleen, were also ineffective sources for intestinal gamma/delta+ T cells. Intestinal colonization by gamma/delta+ thymocytes occurred in two discrete waves in embryos and newly hatched birds. The data indicate that intestinal gamma/delta T cells in the chicken are primarily thymic migrants that are relatively long-lived.