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T cells are born from hematopoietic stem cells, [1] found in the bone marrow. Developing T cells then migrate to the thymus gland to develop (or mature). T cells derive their name from the thymus. [2] [3] After migration to the thymus, the precursor cells mature into several distinct types of T cells. T cell differentiation also continues after ...
Once mature, T cells emigrate from the thymus to provide vital functions in the immune system. [11] [12] Each T cell has a distinct T cell receptor, suited to a specific substance, called an antigen. [12] Most T cell receptors bind to the major histocompatibility complex on cells of the body.
In immunology, a naive T cell (T h 0 cell) is a T cell that has differentiated in the thymus, and successfully undergone the positive and negative processes of central selection in the thymus. Among these are the naive forms of helper T cells ( CD4 + ) and cytotoxic T cells ( CD8 + ).
The purpose of thymocyte development is to produce mature T cells with a diverse array of functional T cell receptors, through the process of TCR gene rearrangement. Unlike most genes, which have a stable sequence in each cell which expresses them, the T cell receptor is made up of a series of alternative gene fragments. In order to create a ...
Central tolerance is essential to proper immune cell functioning because it helps ensure that mature B cells and T cells do not recognize self-antigens as foreign microbes. [2] More specifically, central tolerance is necessary because T cell receptors (TCRs) and B cell receptors (BCRs) are made by cells through random somatic rearrangement. [ 1 ]
In 1989, two scientific groups came up with the hypothesis that the thymus expresses genes which are in the periphery, strictly expressed by specific tissues (e.g.: Insulin produced by β cells of the pancreas) to subsequently present these so-called "tissue-restricted antigens" (TRAs) from almost all parts of the body to developing T cells in order to test which TCRs recognize self-tissues ...
V(D)J recombination (variable–diversity–joining rearrangement) is the mechanism of somatic recombination that occurs only in developing lymphocytes during the early stages of T and B cell maturation. It results in the highly diverse repertoire of antibodies/immunoglobulins and T cell receptors (TCRs) found in B cells and T cells, respectively.
Thymic involution results in a decreased output of naïve T lymphocytes – mature T cells that are tolerant to self antigens, responsive to foreign antigens, but have not yet been stimulated by a foreign substance. In adults, naïve T-cells are hypothesized to be primarily maintained through homeostatic proliferation, or cell division of ...