Medullary thymic epithelial cells: Deciphering the functional diversity beyond promiscuous gene expression

Camila Ribeiro; Nuno L Alves; Pedro Ferreirinha

doi:10.1016/j.imlet.2019.01.012

Medullary thymic epithelial cells: Deciphering the functional diversity beyond promiscuous gene expression

Immunol Lett. 2019 Nov:215:24-27. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2019.01.012. Epub 2019 Mar 7.

Authors

Camila Ribeiro¹, Nuno L Alves¹, Pedro Ferreirinha²

Affiliations

¹ i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Portugal; IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Portugal.
² i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Portugal; IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: Pedro.Ferreirinha@ibmc.up.pt.

PMID: 30853502
DOI: 10.1016/j.imlet.2019.01.012

Abstract

Within the thymus, cortical and medullary thymic epithelial cells (cTECs and mTECs, respectively) provide unique microenvironments for the development of T cells that are responsive to diverse foreign antigens while self-tolerant. Essential for tolerance induction, mTECs play a critical role in negative selection and T regulatory cell differentiation. In this article, we review the current knowledge on the functional diversity within mTECs and discuss how these novel subsets contribute to tolerance induction and are integrated in the complex blueprint of mTEC differentiation.

Keywords: Medullary thymic epithelial cells; Thymic epithelial cells; Thymus.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Cell Differentiation / immunology*
Epithelial Cells / cytology
Epithelial Cells / immunology*
Gene Expression Regulation / immunology*
Humans
Self Tolerance*
T-Lymphocytes / cytology
T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
Thymus Gland / cytology
Thymus Gland / immunology*