ArticleThe Journal of biological chemistry
Heparan sulfate is essential for thymus growth.
Article in The Journal of biological chemistry. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans in Immunity.Proteoglycan research · 2026Article
- 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
- Free glutaraldehyde gelatin microsphere loaded mesenchymal stem cells alleviate osteoarthritis by promotingTheranostics · 2025Article
- Review
- The Proteostasis of Thymic Stromal Cells in Health and Diseases.The protein journal · 2024Review
- Revisiting the immunopathology of congenital disorders of glycosylation: an updated review.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Mesenchymal stromal cells in the thymus.Inflammation and regeneration · 2022Review
- Thymic Extracellular Matrix in the Thymopoiesis: Just a Supporting?Biotech (Basel (Switzerland)) · 2022Article
- Physiology and Pathophysiology of Heparan Sulfate in Animal Models: Its Biosynthesis and Degradation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- The fibroblast: An emerging key player in thymic T cell selection.Immunological reviews · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Thymus organogenesis and T cell development are coordinated by various soluble and cell-bound molecules. Heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycans can interact with and immobilize many soluble mediators, creating fields or gradients of secreted ligands. While the role of HS in the development of many organs has been studied extensively, little is known about its function in the thymus. Here, we examined the distribution of HS in the thymus and the effect of its absence on thymus organogenesis and T cell development. We found that HS was expressed most abundantly on the thymic fibroblasts and at lower levels on endothelial, epithelial, and hematopoietic cells. To study the function of HS in the thymus, we eliminated most of HS in this organ by genetically disrupting the glycosyltransferase Ext1 that is essential for its synthesis. The absence of HS greatly reduced the size of the thymus in fetal thymic organ cultures and in vivo, in mice, and decreased the production of T cells. However, no specific blocks in T cell development were observed. Wild-type thymic fibroblasts were able to physically bind the homeostatic chemokines CCL19, CCL21, and CXCL12 ex vivo. However, this binding was abolished upon HS degradation, disrupting the CCL19/CCL21 chemokine gradients and causing impaired migration of dendritic cells in thymic slices. Thus, our results show that HS plays an essential role in the development and growth of the thymus and in regulating interstitial cell migration.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.