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Intercellular Protein Transfer from Thymocytes to Thymic Epithelial Cells.
- Source :
-
PloS one [PLoS One] 2016 Mar 29; Vol. 11 (3), pp. e0152641. Date of Electronic Publication: 2016 Mar 29 (Print Publication: 2016). - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Promiscuous expression of tissue restricted antigens (TRAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is crucial for negative selection of self-reactive T cells to establish central tolerance. Intercellular transfer of self-peptide-MHC complexes from mTECs to thymic dendritic cells (DCs) allows DCs to acquire TRAs, which in turn contributes to negative selection and regulatory T cell generation. However, mTECs are unlikely to express all TRAs, such as immunoglobulins generated only in B cells after somatic recombination, hyper-mutation, or class-switches. We report here that both mTECs and cortical TECs can efficiently acquire not only cell surface but also intracellular proteins from thymocytes. This reveals a previously unappreciated intercellular sharing of molecules from thymocytes to TECs, which may broaden the TRA inventory in mTECs for establishing a full spectrum of central tolerance.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1932-6203
- Volume :
- 11
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- PloS one
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 27022746
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152641