Maintenance of Peripheral Naive T Cells Is Sustained by Thymus Output in Mice but Not Humans

Ineke den Braber, Tendai Mugwagwa, Nienke Vrisekoop, Liset Westera, Ramona Mögling, Anne Bregje de Boer, Neeltje Willems, Elise H.R. Schrijver, Gerrit Spierenburg, Koos Gaiser, Erik Mul, Sigrid A. Otto (+6 others)
2012 Immunity  
Parallels between T cell kinetics in mice and men have fueled the idea that a young mouse is a good model system for a young human, and an old mouse, for an elderly human. By combining in vivo kinetic labeling using deuterated water, thymectomy experiments, analysis of T cell receptor excision circles and CD31 expression, and mathematical modeling, we have quantified the contribution of thymus output and peripheral naive T cell division to the maintenance of T cells in mice and men. Aging
more » ... ed naive T cell maintenance fundamentally differently in mice and men. Whereas the naive T cell pool in mice was almost exclusively sustained by thymus output throughout their lifetime, the maintenance of the adult human naive T cell pool occurred almost exclusively through peripheral T cell division. These findings put constraints on the extrapolation of insights into T cell dynamics from mouse to man and vice versa.
doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2012.02.006 pmid:22365666 fatcat:ph5snrk4ljfknbc2gz353n7i6q