T cell development in the thymus is a highly evolved process. Signal transduction is critical to mediate maturation of T cells. Expression of pre-T cell receptor (pre-TCR) and TCR complex on cell surface allows signal transduction that is critical for T cell maturation. Four CD3 chains, which are gamma, delta, epsilon, and zeta, are associated with the two types of receptor complexes and play essential roles in T cell activation. While CD3gamma-, epsilon-, or zeta-deficient mice show impaired pre-TCR function, CD3delta deficiency impairs thymocyte development at the double positive (DP) stage indicating that it is not required for pre-TCR-mediated double negative (DN) to DP transition. / In the present thesis, we have assessed the role of two highly homologous CD3 chains, CD3gamma and CD3delta, in the DN to DP transition. We describe two mouse models to show that CD3delta is required for pre-TCR-mediated DN to DP transition. We also show that the cytoplasmic domain of CD3gamma plays a critical role in the DN to DP transition depending on the genetic background.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.111934 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Brodeur, Jean-François. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Microbiology and Immunology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002585936, proquestno: AAIMR32821, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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