Reinterpreting recent thymic emigrant function: defective or adaptive?

Reinterpreting recent thymic emigrant function: defective or adaptive? Curr Opin Immunol. 2017 Dec 16;51:1-6 Authors: Cunningham CA, Helm EY, Fink PJ Abstract Recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) are those peripheral T cells that have most recently completed thymic development and egress. Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in understanding the cell-extrinsic and cell-intrinsic requirements for RTE maturation to mature naïve (MN) T cells and in detailing the functional differences that characterize these two T cell populations. Much of this work has suggested that RTEs are hypo-functional versions of more mature T cells. However, recent evidence has indicated that rather than being defective T cells, RTEs are exquisitely adapted to their cellular niche. In this review, we argue that RTEs are not flawed mature T cells but are adapted to fill an underpopulated T cell compartment, while maintaining self tolerance and possessing the capacity to mount robust immune responses. PMID: 29257954 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Immunol Source Type: research