The generation, fate and functional potential of recent thymic emigrants

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A particular kind of white blood cell, called a T lymphocyte, is responsible for controlling our immune responses to foreign invaders. These cells develop in the thymus, where they learn to distinguish between foreign invaders and self tissue, before emigrating to other organs. The regulation of this process is important to maintain a pool of T lymphocytes in the body. It is important that T lymphocytes do not respond against self tissue, as this can lead to a Oself destructO disease called autoimmunity. Since these developing T lymphocytes will not see all kinds of self tissue while in the thymus, we propose that their education to prevent self-tissue reactivity may continue for some time after they leave the thymus.