ArticleThe Journal of experimental medicine2004
CCR7 signals are essential for cortex-medulla migration of developing thymocytes.
Article in The Journal of experimental medicine, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 190 papers.
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Who cites it
190 citing papers in PubMed, 389 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epithelial chemokine CCL25 integrates T cell development and intestinal homeostasis.The Journal of experimental medicine · 2026Article
- From Development to Aging: Dynamic Roles of the Thymic Medulla in T Cell Biology.Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- Proteasome alteration between epithelial and hematopoietic cells facilitates positive selection of CD8 T cells.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Loss of the actin remodeling protein Flightless-1 impairs CD8 and regulatory T cell function.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2026Article
- Unraveling CD8 lineage decisions reveals that functionally distinct CD8Nature immunology · 2026Article
- Fine tuning of TCR signaling via CD8αβ and PD-1 and the fate of autoreactive thymocytes during negative selection.ImmunoHorizons · 2026Article
- Semaphorins: from CD8⁺ T cells to cancer immunotherapy.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Delineating phenotypic heterogeneity in human regulatory T cells across developmental stages and therapeutic sources.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Single-cell transcriptome delineating asymmetric dynamics of CD4Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Thymic egress and peripheral T cell homeostasis regulated by Rho GTPase-activating protein 30.Cell death and differentiation · 2025Article
- Ccl21a, Rather Than Ccl21b, is Essential for Thymocyte Migration in Mouse.European journal of immunology · 2025Article
- Premature thymic involution in young Foxn1lacz mutant mice causes peripheral T cell phenotypes similar to aging-induced immunosenescence.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2025Article
- An iPSC-based in vitro model recapitulates human thymic epithelial development and multi-lineage specification.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Integrin CD103 reveals a distinct developmental pathway of autoreactive thymocytes in TCR transgenic mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- It's Time to Unite: Diversity and Coordination of Thymic Stromal Cells for T Cell Selection and Organ Integrity.Immunological reviews · 2025Review
- Basic interactions responsible for thymus function explain the convoluted medulla shape.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Nr4a1 and Nr4a3 redundantly control clonal deletion and contribute to an anergy-like transcriptome in auto-reactive thymocytes to impose tolerance in mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Thymic hyperplasia in myasthenia gravis: a narrative review.Mediastinum (Hong Kong, China) · 2025Review
- Thymus research in relation to myasthenia gravis: a new perspective on cell subpopulations and future directions.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Intrathymic Cell Migration: Implications in Thymocyte Development and T Lymphocyte Repertoire Formation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
130 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Upon TCR-mediated positive selection, developing thymocytes relocate within the thymus from the cortex to the medulla for further differentiation and selection. However, it is unknown how this cortex-medulla migration of thymocytes is controlled and how it controls T cell development. Here we show that in mice deficient for CCR7 or its ligands mature single-positive thymocytes are arrested in the cortex and do not accumulate in the medulla. These mutant mice are defective in forming the medullary region of the thymus. Thymic export of T cells in these mice is compromised during the neonatal period but not in adulthood. Thymocytes in these mice show no defects in maturation, survival, and negative selection to ubiquitous antigens. TCR engagement of immature cortical thymocytes elevates the cell surface expression of CCR7. These results indicate that CCR7 signals are essential for the migration of positively selected thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla. CCR7-dependent cortex-medulla migration of thymocytes plays a crucial role in medulla formation and neonatal T cell export but is not essential for maturation, survival, negative selection, and adult export of thymocytes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.