Current Biology
Volume 4, Issue 9, September 1994, Pages 821-823
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T-Cell Co-Receptors: The end of a frustrating search

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-9822(00)00182-2Get rights and content

Abstract

The identification of a ‘silencer’ element that turns off CD4 gene expression at specific stages in thymocyte differentiation may help to resolve an important outstanding problem in immunology.

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In addition to their antigen-specific receptors, mature T cells express essential co-receptors — one or other of the cell surface molecules CD4 and CD8, characteristic of helper and killer T cells, respectively. The CD4 and CD8 co-receptors have served as useful markers for following the sometimes tortuous pathways of thymocyte differentiation, which are outlined in Figure 1 (reviewed in [1]). The earliest T-cell precursors express low levels of CD4 and no detectable CD8 when they seed the

Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis, Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Eucaryotes du CNRS et Unité 184 de Biologie Moléculaire de I’Inserm, Institut de Chimie Biologique, 11, rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cédex, France.

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Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis, Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Eucaryotes du CNRS et Unité 184 de Biologie Moléculaire de I’Inserm, Institut de Chimie Biologique, 11, rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cédex, France.

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