characterization-thymic-settling-progenitors-mouse-embryo-using-vivo

Characterization of Thymic Settling Progenitors in the Mouse Embryo Using <em>In Vivo</em> and <em>In Vitro</em> Assays

Characterizing thymic settling progenitors is important to understand the pre-thymic stages of T cell development, essential to devise strategies for T ...

Institut Cochin

University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Cellule Pasteur, Institut Pasteur

Lineage commitment is regulated during hematopoiesis, with stepwise loss of differentiation potential ultimately resulting in lineage commitment. In this study we describe a novel population of B/NK bipotent precursors among common lymphoid progenitors in the fetal liver and the bone marrow. The absence of T cell precursor potential, both in vivo and in vitro, is due to low Notch1 expression and secondary to inhibition of E2A activity by members of the inhibitor of DNA binding (Id) protein family. Our results demonstrate a new, Id protein-dependent, molecular mechanism of Notch1 repression, operative in both fetal and adult common lymphoid progenitors, where T cell potential is selectively inhibited without affecting either the B or NK programs. This study identifies Id proteins as negative regulators of T cell specification, before B and NK commitment, and provides important insights into the transcriptional networks orchestrating hematopoiesis.

Inhibitors of DNA binding proteins restrict T cell potential by repressing Notch1 expression in Flt3-negative common lymphoid progenitors.

The generation of T cells depends on the migration of hematopoietic progenitor cells to the thymus throughout life. The identity of the thymus-settling progenitor cells has been a matter of considerable debate. Here we found that thymopoiesis was initiated by a first wave of T cell lineage-restricted progenitor cells with limited capacity for population expansion but accelerated differentiation into mature T cells. They gave rise to αβ and γδ T cells that constituted Vγ3(+) dendritic epithelial T cells. Thymopoiesis was subsequently maintained by less-differentiated progenitor cells that retained the potential to develop into B cells and myeloid cells. In that second wave, which started before birth, progenitor cells had high proliferative capacity but delayed differentiation capacity and no longer gave rise to embryonic γδ T cells. Our work reconciles conflicting hypotheses on the nature of thymus-settling progenitor cells.

Two waves of distinct hematopoietic progenitor cells colonize the fetal thymus.

Different studies have linked hypoxia to embryonic development. Specifically, when embryonic pancreases are cultured ex vivo under hypoxic conditions (3% O2), beta cell development is impaired. Different cellular signalling pathways are involved in adaptation to hypoxia, including the ubiquitous hypoxia-inducible-factor 1-α (HIF1-α) pathway. We aimed to analyse the effects of HIF1-α stabilisation on fetal pancreas development in vivo.

von Hippel-Lindau gene disruption in mouse pancreatic progenitors and its consequences on endocrine differentiation in vivo: importance of HIF1-α and VEGF-A upregulation.

Cyrille Ramond

Research Center Growth and Signaling,
INSERM U845,
Research Center Growth and Signaling, INSERM U845

Institut Cochin

Characterization of Thymic Settling Progenitors in the Mouse Embryo Using In Vivo and In Vitro Assays

Cyrille Ramond

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Institut Cochin

Characterization of Thymic Settling Progenitors in the Mouse Embryo Using In Vivo and In Vitro Assays

Research Center Growth and Signaling,
INSERM U845,
Research Center Growth and Signaling, INSERM U845