%0 Journal Article
%A Brunk, Fabian
%A Michel, Chloé
%A Holland-Letz, Tim
%A Slynko, Alla
%A Kopp-Schneider, Annette
%A Kyewski, Bruno
%A Pinto, Sheena
%T Dissecting and modeling the emergent murine TEC compartment during ontogeny.
%J European journal of immunology
%V 47
%N 7
%@ 0014-2980
%C Weinheim
%I Wiley-VCH
%M DKFZ-2017-01415
%P 1153 - 1159
%D 2017
%X The origin of the thymic epithelium, i.e. the cortical (cTEC) and medullary (mTEC) epithelial cells, from bipotent stem cells through TEC progenitors and lineage-specific progeny still remains poorly understood. We sought to obtain an unbiased view of the incipient emergence of TEC subsets by following embryonic TEC development based on co-expression of EpCAM, CD80 and MHC class II (MHCII) on non-hematopoietic (CD45(-) ) thymic stromal cells in wild-type BL6 mice. Using a combination of ex vivo analysis, Re-aggregate Thymic Organ Culture (RTOC) reconstitution assays and mathematical modeling, we traced emergent lineage commitment in murine embryonic TECs. Both experimental and mathematical datasets supported the following developmental sequence: MHCII(-) CD80(-) → MHCII(lo) CD80(-) → MHCII(hi) CD80(-) → MHCII(hi) CD80(hi) TECs, whereby MHCII(hi) CD80(-) and MHCII(hi) CD80(hi) TECs bear features of cTECs and mTECs respectively. These emergent MHCII(hi) CD80(-) cTECs directly generate mature MHCII(hi) CD80(hi) mTECs in vivo and in vitro, thus supporting the asynchronous model of TEC lineage commitment.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:28439878
%R 10.1002/eji.201747006
%U https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/125276