ArticleeLife2024
Developmental conversion of thymocyte-attracting cells into self-antigen-displaying cells in embryonic thymus medulla epithelium.
Article in eLife, 2024. 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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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.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Thymic alveolar type 2 epithelial mimetic cells revealed by RUNX1 deficiency.Nature immunology · 2026Article
- Runx3 instructs AireJournal of autoimmunity · 2026Article
- From Development to Aging: Dynamic Roles of the Thymic Medulla in T Cell Biology.Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- RNA-binding proteins Zfp36l1 and Zfp36l2 protect against premature thymic involution.Cellular & molecular immunology · 2026Article
- AIRE transcriptional condensates in central tolerance: a multiscale mechanistic perspective.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Ccl21a, Rather Than Ccl21b, is Essential for Thymocyte Migration in Mouse.European journal of immunology · 2025Article
- An iPSC-based in vitro model recapitulates human thymic epithelial development and multi-lineage specification.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Deconstructing the Thymic Microenvironment Through Genesis to Senescence.Immunological reviews · 2025Review
- Endogenous thymic regeneration: restoring T cell production following injury.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- T Cell Development: From T-Lineage Specification to Intrathymic Maturation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Thymus research in relation to myasthenia gravis: a new perspective on cell subpopulations and future directions.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Generation and repair of thymic epithelial cells.The Journal of experimental medicine · 2024Review
- Age-related epithelial defects limit thymic function and regeneration.Nature immunology · 2024Article
- Preparation of Single-cell Suspension of Mouse Thymic Epithelial Cells and Staining of Intracellular Molecules for Flow Cytometric Analysis.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2024Article
- Aire in Autoimmunity.Annual review of immunology · 2024Review
- Functionally diverse thymic medullary epithelial cells interplay to direct central tolerance.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Direct and indirect RANK and CD40 signaling regulate the maintenance of thymic epithelial cell frequency and properties in the adult thymus.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Thymus medulla epithelium establishes immune self-tolerance and comprises diverse cellular subsets. Functionally relevant medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) include a self-antigen-displaying subset that exhibits genome-wide promiscuous gene expression promoted by the nuclear protein Aire and that resembles a mosaic of extrathymic cells including mucosal tuft cells. An additional mTEC subset produces the chemokine CCL21, thereby attracting positively selected thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla. Both self-antigen-displaying and thymocyte-attracting mTEC subsets are essential for self-tolerance. Here, we identify a developmental pathway by which mTECs gain their diversity in functionally distinct subsets. We show that CCL21-expressing mTECs arise early during thymus ontogeny in mice. Fate-mapping analysis reveals that self-antigen-displaying mTECs, including Aire-expressing mTECs and thymic tuft cells, are derived from CCL21-expressing cells. The differentiation capability of CCL21-expressing embryonic mTECs is verified in reaggregate thymus experiments. These results indicate that CCL21-expressing embryonic mTECs carry a developmental potential to give rise to self-antigen-displaying mTECs, revealing that the sequential conversion of thymocyte-attracting subset into self-antigen-displaying subset serves to assemble functional diversity in the thymus medulla epithelium.
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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.