Bcl11b prevents the intrathymic development of innate CD8 T cells in a cell intrinsic manner

We examined thymocytes at and after the DP stage in Bcl11b F/S826G CD4cre, Bcl11b F/+ CD4cre and Bcl11b +/S826G mice, carrying the allele that substituted serine for glycine at the position of 826. Here we show that Bcl11b impairment leads to an increase in the population of TCRαβhighCD44highCD122high innate CD8SP thymocytes, together with two different developmental abnormalities: impaired positive and negative selection accompanying a reduction in the number of CD8SP cells, and developmental arrest of NKT cells at multiple steps. The innate CD8SP thymocytes express Eomes and secrete IFN- after stimulation with PMA and ionomycin, and in this case their increase is not due to a bystander effect of IL-4 but cell intrinsic. Those results indicate that Bcl11b regulates development of different thymocyte subsets at multiple stages and prevents an excess of innate CD8SP thymocytes.

Source: International Immunology - March 23, 2015 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Hirose, S., Touma, M., Go, R., Katsuragi, Y., Sakuraba, Y., Gondo, Y., Abe, M., Sakimura, K., Mishima, Y., Kominami, R. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research