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Thymus

thymus

(Science: anatomy) The lymphoid organ in which t lymphocytes are educated, mature and multiply. It is composed of stroma (thymic epithelium) and lymphocytes, almost entirely of the t-cell lineage. In mammals the thymus is just anterior to the heart within the rib cage, in other vertebrates in rather undefined regions of the neck or within the gill chamber in teleost fish. The thymus regresses as the animal matures.


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T cell differentiation

In a nutshell, T cells (or their progenitors, rather) first divide actively and start to differentiate in the bone marrow, then migrate to thymus where they continue to mature (including T cell receptor assembly, psoitive and negative selection, double CD4+/CD8+ phase etc.) and then move to ...

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by biohazard
Fri May 08, 2009 6:53 am
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: T cell differentiation
Replies: 12
Views: 2252

T cell differentiation

Well, you almost got it :) RTEs already express CD4 or CD8 marker (all T cells leaving the thymus are "single positive" CD4+ or CD8+ cells, although these include a small subset of CD4+ regulatory T cells). However, there are some other differences that separate ...

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by biohazard
Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:53 pm
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: T cell differentiation
Replies: 12
Views: 2252

Re: T cell differentiation

Thanks for the explanation biohazard. I think i've got it now: The T cells are produced in the thymus as naive CD4+ and CD8+ cells and then recognise the antigen in the lymph nodes (mainly) but recently there have been RTE's discovered which are not yet CD4 or CD8 positive ...

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by Immunologyordie
Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:41 pm
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: T cell differentiation
Replies: 12
Views: 2252

T cell differentiation

... For CD4+ cells, for example, there are so-called recent thymic emigrants (RTE, yeah sounds stupid I know :P), T cells that have emerged from the thymus after their T cell receptor has been deemed appropriate (e.g. it does not recognize self molecules with high affinity, but recognizes foreign ...

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by biohazard
Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:43 am
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: T cell differentiation
Replies: 12
Views: 2252

Re: T cell differentiation

So after they have been activated in the lymph nodes they travel to the thymus where they differentiate and then migrate to infected tissue If anyone knows of a source which provides a good overview of this please let me know. I dont want to sound lazy because ...

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by Immunologyordie
Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:23 pm
 
Forum: Human Biology
Topic: T cell differentiation
Replies: 12
Views: 2252
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