Thymic nurse cell lymphocytes react against self major histocompatibility complex

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
It has been postulated that thymic nurse cells (TNC), lymphoid‐epithelial complexes composed of thymocytes enclosed within major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I+ and class II+ cortical epithelial cells, may provide an optimal microenvironment for the process of T cell selection. By transplanting single TNC in the avian chorionallantoic membrane assay we demonstrate that a significant portion of intra‐TNC lymphocytes (TNC‐L) possess reactivity against self‐MHC molecules. The frequency of these autoreactive cells among TNC‐L exceeds by far that of thymocytes or peripheral blood lymphocytes of the same donor. These results indicate that TNC‐L constitute a T cell population enriched for self‐MHC reactivity, i.e. cells that have undergone positive selection, but not yet deletion and/or deactivation.