Functionally diverse thymic medullary epithelial cells interplay to direct central tolerance
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ABSTRACT: Medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) are essential for the establishment of self-tolerance in T cells. Promiscuous gene expression by a subpopulation of mTECs regulated by nuclear protein Aire contributes to the display of self-genomic products to newly generated T cells. Recent reports have highlighted additional self-antigen-displaying mTEC subpopulations; namely, Fezf2-expressing mTECs and a mosaic of self-mimetic mTECs including thymic tuft cells. In addition, a functionally different subset of mTECs produces chemokine CCL21 that attracts developing thymocytes to the medullary region. Here we report that CCL21+ mTECs and Aire+ mTECs non-redundantly cooperate to direct self-tolerance to prevent autoimmune pathology by optimizing the deletion of self-reactive T cells and the generation of regulatory T cells. We also detected a cooperation for self-tolerance between Aire and Fezf2, which unexpectedly regulates thymic tuft cells. Our results indicate an indispensable interplay among functionally diverse mTECs for the establishment of central self-tolerance.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE243180 | GEO | 2024/03/08
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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