Commitment issues: linking positive selection signals and lineage diversification in the thymus

摘要: Summary:  The thymus is responsible for the production of CD4+ helper and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, which constitute cellular arm immune system. These cell types derive from common precursors that interact with thymic stroma in a T-cell receptor (TCR)-specific fashion, generating intracellular signals are translated into function-specific changes gene expression. This overall process termed positive selection, but it encompasses number temporally distinct possibly mechanistically changes, including rescue apoptosis, initiation differentiation, commitment to or lineage. One puzzling features selection how specificity TCR controls lineage commitment, as both cytolytic cells utilize same antigen-receptor components, exception CD4 CD8 coreceptors themselves. In this review, we focus on required particularly they relate commitment. Identification genes encoding transcriptional regulators play role development has led significant recent advances field. We also provide an overview nuclear factors context and, where known, their regulation linked have been implicated initiating regulating selection.