SFB 1054 Seminar - Hans Jörg Fehling
Institute of Immunology, Molecular Immunology, University Clinics Ulm
13.07.2017 at 12:15
Title: In search of the elusive Thymus Settling Progenitor (TSP) - Lineage tracing studies with knock-in mouse lines
Sustained T lymphopoiesis necessitates continued import of immature precursor cells from the bone marrow into the thymus. Despite decades of intense research, neither identity nor full characteristics of “Thymus Settling Progenitors” (TSP) have been determined with certainty, leaving an irritating gap in current schemes of T lymphopoiesis. In vitro culture systems and in vivo cell transfer assays have been instrumental in identifying several promising TSP candidate populations. However, such assays can only reveal the developmental potential of a cell population, but not to what extent, if at all, this potential is genuinely utilized within the intact organism under physiologic in vivo conditions. In vivo lineage tracing based on Cre/loxP-technology provides a potent genetic marking method, which effectively avoids many vagaries of in vitro cell culture systems and adoptive transfer assays, when studying developmental fate decisions. Over the last couple of years, my laboratory has developed a number of genetic tools for in vivo lineage tracing studies, which can be used both for the identification and isolation of very rare cell populations and for the elucidation of in vivo precursor-product relationships. My presentation will focus on two knock-in mouse lines, preTCRalpha-iCre (Luche H. et al. [2013]) and Gata3-IRESvYFP (unpublished), which have been generated primarily to identify and characterize TSP candidate populations. In the course of my presentation I may also discuss methodological issues of in vivo lineage tracing in general and luring technical pitfalls, which may invalidate this otherwise powerful experimental approach.
Venue:
BioMedical Center (BMC), Room N 01.017,
Großhaderner Str. 9, Planegg-Martinsried
Host: Reinhard Obst (B07)
