D Cyclins play an essential role connecting exogenous stimulation to the intrinsic cell cycle machinery. This family of proteins is composed of three members sharing a highly homologous domain, the cyclin box (coded by exons 1-3), which is responsible for their redundant role in the phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma protein upon association with cydin-dependent kinases Cdk4/6. Both mature T and B-cells have a remarkable division capability after antigen stimulation, essential to the generation of efficient immune responses, raising the interest of D Cyclins in lymphopoiesis. Cyclin Dl, although weakly expressed by lymphocytes, is the D Cyclin most commonly implicated in lymphoid cancers and as having a Cdk-independent transcriptional role. To study the role of Cyclin Dl, we used mice deficient for the Dl cyclin box but sparing exons 4-5. Surprisingly, individual mice have very different phenotypes that we subdivided into four arbitrary groups. Group I mice show the most precocious block in lymphoid lineage differentiation, illustrated by a low cellularity of common lymphoid progenitor cells (CLP). The thymi showed very few CD4*CD8*, double positive (DP) cells, while the CD4 CD8TCR, triple negative (TN) populations were found to be mostly constituted by the early CD44*CD25' (TNI) and few CD44*CD25* (TN2). TNl's early thymocyte progenitors (ETP) were virtually absent. At the B-cell lineage level in the bone marrow (BM) there was a major block in pre-proB differentiation. The number of peripheral T-cells was severely reduced, mainly in LN, since group I T-cells lack CCR7 expression. Group II mice presented moderate thymus atrophy. The block on TN differentiation occurs at a later stage, i.e., in the TN3 to TN4 transition, and the TNI population was characterized by a less severe depletion of the ETP. Group II mice showed a partial pre-proB block and a reduction in pre-B-cells. CLPs were also reduced but to a lesser extent than in group I mice. Group ill and group IV mice appear to have a normal thymocyte population distribution but showed an increase on ETP compartment. Group IV mice displayed thymic hyperplasia while group III mice possessed normal thymus cellularity. B-cell differentiation on both groups appeared to be normal but BM precursors had an increase in both CLP and early haematopoietic progenitor's (LSK) levels as compared with wild type mice. Cyclin Dl involvement in G1 to S transition led us to analyse in vivo division rates. Strikingly, group I mice were virtually devoid of cycling cellsin all lymphoid compartments, explaining why lymphoid lineage cells do not differentiate in these mice. In contrast, in all other groups we observed an increased BrdU incorporation. These contradicting phenotypes correlated with the expression or absence of a truncated Dl protein coded by exons 4-5. The presence of the cyclin Dl truncated mRNA was not found in group I mice but high levels of expression are consistently observed in the remaining groups. In the absence of the Dl truncated protein only trace values of Cyclins D2 and D3 were found, highlighting the role of this protein as a master D cyclin regulator, which further supports the profound aplasia and arrest in lymphoid lineage division on cells that predominantly express Cyclin D2. These results suggest that, while the function of the Dl cyclin box is redundant, the regulatory domain coded by exons 4-5 is fundamental for lymphopoiesis. Full Dl protein was also eliminated by RNA interference both in vitro and in vivo. These experiments reproduced the phenotype of group I mice. We have developed a lentiviral vector with a truncated Dl (exons 4-5) and conditional knockout (KO) mice by floxing exons 4-5 of cyclin Dl. These tools will allow us to show Cyclin Dl Cdk-independent role as a transcription regulator in lymphopoiesis and to attribute this function to exons 4-5. Understanding how exons 4-5 regulate different transcription factors might be a key in...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CCSD/oai:tel.archives-ouvertes.fr:tel-00765134 |
| Date | 23 November 2012 |
| Creators | Chaves Ferreira, Miguel |
| Publisher | Université René Descartes - Paris V |
| Source Sets | CCSD theses-EN-ligne, France |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PhD thesis |
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