RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Tipping the Balance in T Cell Decisions
JF Science Signaling
JO Sci. Signal.
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP ec57
OP ec57
DO 10.1126/stke.16ec57
VO 1
IS 6
A1 Simpson, Stephen J.
YR 2008
UL http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/1/6/ec57.abstract
AB In the thymus, key developmental decisions are made that have far-reaching consequences for the immune system, perhaps most notable the commitment of thymocytes to becoming CD4 (helper) or CD8 (cytotoxic) T cells. The transcriptional factor Th-POK commits thymocytes that still express both CD4 and CD8 co-receptors to becoming CD4 T cells, but how is the alternate developmental option generated? Setoguchi et al. find that cells that would otherwise be destined to become CD8+ T cells can be redirected to the CD4 lineage by loss of members of another transcription factor family, Runx. It seems that under normal circumstances, the Runx complex represses Th-POK expression and allows CD8 T cells to emerge. R. Setoguchi, M. Tachibana, Y. Naoe, S. Muroi, K. Akiyama, C. Tezuka, T. Okuda, I. Taniuchi, Repression of the transcription factor Th-POK by Runx complexes in cytotoxic T cell development. Science 319, 822-825 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]