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. 2012 Feb 24;36(2):288-97.
doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2012.02.006.

Maintenance of peripheral naive T cells is sustained by thymus output in mice but not humans

Ineke den Braber  1 , Tendai Mugwagwa, Nienke Vrisekoop, Liset Westera, Ramona Mögling, Anne Bregje de Boer, Neeltje Willems, Elise H R Schrijver, Gerrit Spierenburg, Koos Gaiser, Erik Mul, Sigrid A Otto, An F C Ruiter, Mariette T Ackermans, Frank Miedema, José A M Borghans, Rob J de Boer, Kiki Tesselaar
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Free article

Maintenance of peripheral naive T cells is sustained by thymus output in mice but not humans

Ineke den Braber et al. Immunity. .
Free article

Abstract

Parallels between T cell kinetics in mice and men have fueled the idea that a young mouse is a good model system for a young human, and an old mouse, for an elderly human. By combining in vivo kinetic labeling using deuterated water, thymectomy experiments, analysis of T cell receptor excision circles and CD31 expression, and mathematical modeling, we have quantified the contribution of thymus output and peripheral naive T cell division to the maintenance of T cells in mice and men. Aging affected naive T cell maintenance fundamentally differently in mice and men. Whereas the naive T cell pool in mice was almost exclusively sustained by thymus output throughout their lifetime, the maintenance of the adult human naive T cell pool occurred almost exclusively through peripheral T cell division. These findings put constraints on the extrapolation of insights into T cell dynamics from mouse to man and vice versa.

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  • Losing TREC with age.
    Zhang SL, Bhandoola A. Zhang SL, et al. Immunity. 2012 Feb 24;36(2):163-5. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2012.02.005. Immunity. 2012. PMID: 22365662 Free PMC article.

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