ttp://jem.rupress.org/content/195/7/835.full
Published March 25, 2002 // JEM vol. 195 no. 7 835-844
The Rockefeller University Press, doi: 10.1084/jem.20011544
© 2002 Rockefeller University Press
Original Article
A Natural Killer T (NKT) Cell Developmental Pathway Involving a Thymus-dependent NK1.1−CD4+ CD1d-dependent Precursor Stage
Daniel G. Pellicci 1 , Kirsten J.L. Hammond 1 , Adam P. Uldrich 1 , Alan G. Baxter 2 , Mark J. Smyth 3 , and Dale I. Godfrey 1
こちらのintroductionにいくらか議論が載っています。ちょっと古いので、新たな展開がなされているかもしれませんけど。
Although NKT cells are present in the thymus, the developmental origin of these cells is controversial. Some investigators have argued that NKT cells are present in thymus-deficient nude mice or in bone marrow–repopulated, thymectomized adult mice (18–21; for a review, see reference 1). However, several studies support a thymus-dependent origin for these cells, as they are significantly reduced in neonatally thymectomized mice (22), CD4+NK1.1+ cells are clearly absent from livers of nude mice (23), and canonical TCR Vα14Jα281 rearrangements are not detected in irradiated, thymectomized, and fetal liver–repopulated adult mice (24). Some of these conflicting results may be due to the fact that some NK1.1 expressing T cells exist that are quite distinct from “classical”, CD1d-dependent, NKT cells (2, 25, 26). These cells, sometimes referred to as type-II NKT cells, are CD1d independent, mostly CD4−, have diverse TCRs, may be thymus independent, and their functional significance is unknown. |
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