Montero-Herradón S, García-Ceca J, Zapata AG.

How Many Thymic Epithelial Cells Are Necessary for a Proper Maturation of Thymocytes?

Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 8;12:618216.

DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.618216.

RESUMEN

Thymocyte-TEC interactions in the thymus are assumed as an essential element for an adequate thymocyte education. However, we and, previously, other authors have described different conditions in which these interactions are interrupted or severely broken without apparent changes in the functional thymocyte maturation. Herein, we describe some of these results, especially the condition of mice deficient in either EphB2 or EphB3 kinase receptors that exhibit profound thymic epithelial alterations with few or null changes in the T-cell differentiation. In addition, we address the issue on how many thymic epithelial cells are necessary for a proper maturation of thymocytes on the basis of recent published results by our group. Therefore, we are trying to focus on the analysis of central immunological tolerance and its regulation from a distinct point of view.