%0 Journal Article
%T Functional maturation of two murine medullary-type CD8SP thymocytes
%A Tian Tian
%A Xiaoping Qian
%A Ling Gao
%A Weifeng Chen
%J Chinese Science Bulletin
%@ 1861-9541
%D 2001
%I 
%R 10.1007/BF03187214
%X TCR¦Á¦Â+CD4 CD8+thymocytes are heterogeneity. They may undergo phenotypic and functional maturation within thymic medulla. Medullary-type CD8SP thymocytes were divided into seven subsets based on phenotypic analysis, and their precursor-progeny relationship along with the differential pathway was also delineated. To further testify the validity of the maturation pathway, we purified 6C10 CD69+ cells representing the early stage and 6C10 Qa-2+ cells representing the later stage among medullary-type CD8SP thymocytes and compared their functional maturation levels. CD8+ T cells of spleen were used as the control. It is shown that there is no obvious difference of proliferation ability among these three subsets; however, intracytoplasmic cytokine assay shows that there is a hierarchy of IFN-¦Ã and TNF¦Á secretion among these subsets, strikingly comparable to their phenotypic status among medullary type CD8SP thymocytes. The bioassays of IL-2 and IFN-¦Ã in culture supernatant give the similar results.
%K CD4 CD8+thymocyte
%K phenotype
%K function
%U http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03187214