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Sci. STKE, 4 July 2000
Vol. 2000, Issue 39, p. tw8
[DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.392000tw8]

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Apoptosis Survival in Developing Immune Systems

Proper development of the immune system requires complicated controls of the development of thymocytes and selection of functional T cells through positive and negative selection. Sun et al. examined the role of the retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor (ROR{gamma}) in development of the mouse immune system. Their studies of animals that lacked ROR{gamma} indicate that ROR{gamma} enhances survival of thymocytes by promoting the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-xL. The knockout animals lacked lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, apparently because of failed development of the CD4+ progenitor cells required for normal development of these structures. The authors propose that regulation of ROR{gamma} signals might modulate expression of Bcl-xL and thus control "death by neglect" of thymocytes that fail to interact productively with peptide-MHC complexes.

Sun, Z., Unutmaz, D., Zou, Y.-R., Sunshine, M.J., Pierani, A., Brenner-Morton, S., Mebius, R.E., and Littman, D.R. (2000) Requirement for ROR in thymocyte survival and lymphoid organ development. Science 288: 2369-2373. [Abstract] [Full Text]

Citation: Survival in Developing Immune Systems. Sci. STKE 2000, tw8 (2000).

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