Promiscuous gene expression in medullary thymic epithelial cells mirrors the peripheral self
Promiscuous gene expression in medullary thymic epithelial cells mirrors the peripheral self
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DOI：
10.1038/ni723
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发表时间：
2001-11-01
影响因子：
30.5
通讯作者：
Klein, L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Derbinski, J;Schulte, A;Klein, L
胸腺外周抗原的表达与T细胞耐受和自身免疫有关。在这里，我们确定髓样胸腺上皮细胞是一种独特的细胞类型，表达多种组织特异性抗原。我们发现这种混杂的基因表达是髓上皮细胞的细胞自主特性，并在胸腺T细胞输出的整个过程中保持不变。它可以促进对自身抗原的耐受性诱导，否则这些抗原将在时间或空间上与免疫系统隔离。然而，混杂表达的自身抗原序列似乎是随机的，而不是选择的，并不局限于隐蔽的自身抗原。
Expression of peripheral antigens in the thymus has been implicated in T cell tolerance and autoimmunity. Here we identified medullary thymic epithelial cells as being a unique cell type that expresses a diverse range of tissue-specific antigens. We found that this promiscuous gene expression was a cell-autonomous property of medullary epithelial cells and was maintained during the entire period of thymic T cell output. It may facilitate tolerance induction to self-antigens that would otherwise be temporally or spatially secluded from the immune system. However, the array of promiscuously expressed self-antigens appeared random rather than selected and was not confined to secluded self-antigens.