An immune system switch at birth triggers a change in the lifespan of peripheral T cells |
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Authors: | R.N.P. Cahill W.G. Kimpton C.P. Cunningham E.A. Washington |
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Affiliation: | Laboratory for Fetal and Neonatal Immunology, The University of Melbourne, Cnr Flemington Road and Park Drive, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia |
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Abstract: | Lymphocyte recirculation is an essential element in the integration of immune responses and is an absolute requirement for the development of systemic memory in postnatal animals. During foetal life a large pool of recirculating T cells develops and migration pathways of naive T cells to skin and peripheral tissues as well as LN are established. At birth a process is triggered whereby naive fetal T cells are rapidly lost from the circulating pool and are replaced by newly arriving T cells which have been formed since birth. At present our data suggest that the thymic export in the fetus creates a pool of long-lived naive T cells of wide diversity. The situation in neonatal lambs is more complex since the thymus is exporting large numbers of short-lived thymic emigrants which enter a peripheral T-cell population where many T cells are dividing. |
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Keywords: | thymic emigrants fetal development T-cell lifespan |
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