Abstract
The antigen receptor expressed on most T lymphocytes is a disulphide-linked heterodimer (Ti) that is composed of α-chain and β-chain subunits1–6. On the surface of human T lymphocytes, Ti is non-covalently associated with three invariant proteins, designated CD3-γ, -δ, and -ε7. It has been suggested that Ti is obligatory for CD3 expression8,9. But a T leukaemia cell line10, IL-2 (interleukin 2) dependent T-cell clones established from fetal blood11 and IL-2 dependent cell lines established from immunodeficiency patients with bare lymphocyte syndrome and ectodermal dysplasia syndrome12 have recently been shown to express CD3, but not Ti13 (detected due to monoclonal antibody WT31). These lymphocytes may express the product of the T-cell antigen receptor γ (TCR-γ) gene, rather than the α/β heterodimer, in association with CD310,12. Preliminary studies suggested that T cells expressing CD3 but lacking Ti are present in low frequency in normal lymphoid tissues10,12. Here we show that in normal blood and thymus CD3+, WT31−T cells express neither CD4 nor CD8. The low frequency (<0.2–0.9% of total thymocytes) of CD3+, WT31− cells in the thymus suggests that this population does not represent a major stage of thymic development and may be a distinct lineage of T cells.
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Lanier, L., Weiss, A. Presence of Ti (WT31) negative T lymphocytes in normal blood and thymus. Nature 324, 268–270 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/324268a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/324268a0
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