Early T cell development and the pitfalls of potential

Year
2010
Type(s)
Author(s)
Susan M Schlenner, Hans-Reimer Rodewald
Source
Trends in immunology
Url
http://www.cell.com/trends/immunology/fulltext/S1471-4906(10)00080-3?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1471490610000803%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
BibTeX
BibTeX

The long-standing model for hematopoiesis, which features a dichotomy into separate lymphoid and myeloid branches, predicts that progenitor T cells arise from a lymphocyte-restricted pathway. However, experiments that have detected myeloid potential in progenitor T cells have been reported as evidence to question this model. Mapping physiological differentiation pathways has now led to opposite conclusions, by showing that T cells and thymic myeloid cells have distinct origins and that, in vivo, T cell progenitors lack significant potential for myeloid lineages including dendritic cells. Here, we review the underlying experiments that have led to such fundamentally different conclusions. The current controversy might reflect a need to distinguish between cell fates that are possible experimentally from physiological fate choices, to build a map of immunological differentiation pathways