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Heritable Gene Regulation in the CD4:CD8 T Cell Lineage Choice
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Heritable Gene Regulation in the CD4:CD8 T Cell Lineage Choice

Priya D. A. Issuree, Charles P. Ng and Dan R. Littman
Frontiers in immunology, Vol.8, pp.291-291
03/22/2017
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00291
PMCID: PMC5360760
PMID: 28382035
url
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00291View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The adaptive immune system is dependent on functionally distinct lineages of T cell antigen receptor alpha beta-expressing T cells that differentiate from a common progenitor in the thymus. CD4(+)CD8(+) progenitor thymocytes undergo selection following interaction with MHC class I and class II molecules bearing peptide self-antigens, giving rise to CD8(+) cytotoxic and CD4(+) helper or regulatory T cell lineages, respectively. The strict correspondence of CD4 and CD8 expression with distinct cellular phenotypes has made their genes useful surrogates for investigating molecular mechanisms of lineage commitment. Studies of Cd4 and Cd8 transcriptional regulation have uncovered cis-regulatory elements that are critical for mediating epigenetic modifications at distinct stages of development to establish heritable transcriptional programs. In this review, we examine the epigenetic mechanisms involved in Cd4 and Cd8 gene regulation during T cell lineage specification and highlight the features that make this an attractive system for uncovering molecular mechanisms of heritability.
Immunology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology

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