ArticlePloS one2013
Interleukin-21 accelerates thymic recovery from glucocorticoïd-induced atrophy.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immunosuppression after pediatric liver transplantation may lead to early and prolonged acute thymic involution: findings from a pilot longitudinal study.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Endogenous thymic regeneration: restoring T cell production following injury.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- Primary and secondary defects of the thymus.Immunological reviews · 2024Review
- Systemic immunostimulation induces glucocorticoid-mediated thymic involution succeeded by rebound hyperplasia which is impaired in aged recipients.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- The potential role of the thymus in immunotherapies for acute myeloid leukemia.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Article
- Cushing syndrome and glucocorticoids: T-cell lymphopenia, apoptosis, and rescue by IL-21.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2022Article
- T cell regeneration after immunological injury.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2021Review
- Thymic Function and T-Cell Receptor Repertoire Diversity: Implications for Patient Response to Checkpoint Blockade Immunotherapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- Evaluating Thymic Function After Human Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in the Personalized Medicine Era.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Review
- Complex and Multilayered Role of IL-21 Signaling during Thymic Development.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2019Article
- Article
- Interleukin-21 promotes thymopoiesis recovery following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.Journal of hematology & oncology · 2017Article
- The circadian gene Arntl2 on distal mouse chromosome 6 controls thymocyte apoptosis.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2017Article
- Thymus: the next (re)generation.Immunological reviews · 2016Review
- Interleukin-21 administration to aged mice rejuvenates their peripheral T-cell pool by triggering de novo thymopoiesis.Aging cell · 2016Article
- Modular transcriptional repertoire and MicroRNA target analyses characterize genomic dysregulation in the thymus of Down syndrome infants.Oncotarget · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Both physiological and psychological stress cause thymic atrophy via glucocorticoïd (GC)-dependent apoptosis of double-positive (DP) thymocytes. Given the pervasiveness of stress, GC-induced thymic atrophy is arguably the most common type of acquired immunodeficiency. We recently reported that interleukin-21 (IL-21) has a unique ability to expand the small subset of DP thymocytes (CD69(+)) which are ongoing positive selection, and that administration of IL-21 increases thymic output in aged mice. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether IL-21 could mitigate GC-induced thymic atrophy. In contrast to double-negative (DN) and single-positive (SP) thymocytes, most DP thymocytes (CD69(-)) do not constitutively express the IL-21 receptor (IL-21R). Accordingly, CD69(-) DP thymocytes from PBS-treated mice were unresponsive to IL-21 administration. However, following GC injection, surviving CD69(-) DP thymocytes up-regulated IL-21R and responded to IL-21 treatment as evidenced by enhancement of Bcl6 expression and phosphorylation of STAT1, STAT3 and STAT5. Consequently, IL-21 administration to GC-treated mice accelerated thymic recovery by expanding considerably DP thymocytes and, to a lesser extent, DN thymocytes. However, IL-21-induced expansion of DN/DP thymocytes did not alter the diversity of the intrathymic or peripheral T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire. We conclude that IL-21 dramatically accelerates recovery from GC-induced thymic atrophy.
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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.