Expression of The αβ T-Cell Receptor Is Necessary for The Generation of The Thymic Medulla

摘要

The architecture of the thymus of mice that congenitally fail to express the αβ T-cell receptor(TCRαβ) has been examined by immunohistology. In these mice, a defined mutation wasintroduced into the TCRc gene by homologous recombination. By using antibodies specificfor cortical or medullary epithelium and for major histocompatibility complex antigens, thenetwork of cortical epithelium in these mice was shown to be essentially unaltered incomparison with that of normal mice. In contrast, the thymic medulla was considerablyreduced in size. This analysis shows that expression of the αβ TCR but not the γδ TCR isobligatory for establishing the thymic medulla and suggests that the growth of medullaryepithelial cells may require contact with TCRαβ-expressing cells.