REGULATORY EVENTS IN T CELL DEVELOPMENT IN THE THYMUS

该项目旨在发现控制胸腺内T细胞发育和外周免疫反应的重要调节分子。众所周知，小鼠胚胎发生第10/11天，血液前体细胞出现在胚胎区域，该区域将成为胸腺。这些细胞经历一系列发育阶段，在此期间它们获得各种能力，这些能力最终将被成熟T细胞所需，以执行适当的免疫功能。我们已经发现，胸腺前体细胞经历由半胱天冬酶介导的选择性事件，半胱天冬酶是发育调节的，对程序性细胞死亡过程至关重要。我们还发现，Rlk是一种蛋白酪氨酸激酶，是一类新型酪氨酸激酶的代表，在帮助T细胞对抗感染中发挥重要作用。这些结果可能对骨髓移植和涉及T细胞的免疫缺陷疾病具有重要意义。- 凋亡，分化，凋亡，半胱天冬酶，酪氨酸激酶。

This project is designed to discover important regulatory molecules that control T cell development within the thymus and peripheral immune responses. It is known that blood precursor cells appear in the embryonic region that will become the thymus at day 10/11 of embryogenesis in the mouse. These cells go through a series of developmental stages during which they acquire various capacities that will be eventually needed by the mature T cell to carry out appropriate immune functions. We have found that the thymic precursors undergo selective events medidated by caspases which are developmentally regulated and are essential to the process of programmed cell death. We have also found that Rlk, a protein tyrosine kinase, is representative of a novel class of tyrosine kinases that play an essential role in helping T cells to fight infections. These results may have important implications for bone marrow transplantation and immunodeficiency diseases involving T cells. - Thymus, differentiation, apoptosis, caspase, tyrosine kinase.