A Novel Integrin Involved in Thymocyte-Thymic (original) (raw)

Summary Thymocytes differentiate in the thymic microenvironment into immunocompetent T cell through the interaction with a variety of accessory cells, including thymic epithelial cells (TEC) . TEC play an important role in the selection process presenting self antigens in association with major histocompatibilitycomplex(MHC) molecules to the maturingT cells . TheT cell receptor recognizes the selfantigen-MHC complex, but other surface molecules help stabilize this interaction. Thus, the CD2/LFA3 and LFA-1/intercellular adhesion molecule 1 pairs have been shown to participate in the binding between lymphoid cells and TEC. Here we describe an integrin of the very late activation antigen subfamily composed by the known Nt chain and by a novel ci chain. This adhesion molecule is expressed on the surface of medullary TEC and is involved in the adhesion between TEC and thymocytes, but not peripheral blood T lymphocytes.