J. Exp. Med.
© The Rockefeller University Press
0022-1007/97/03/875/10 $2.00
Volume 185, Number 5, March 3, 1997 875-884

Identification of a Committed T Cell Precursor Population in Adult Human Peripheral Blood

By Ludovica Bruno,^* Pieter Res, Mark Dessing,^* Marina Cella,^* and Hergen Spits

From the ^* Basel Institute for Immunology, 4005 Basel, Switzerland;  The Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Here, we report data concerning the discovery in adult human peripheral blood of a precursor cell population able to differentiate into CD4⁺CD3⁺⁺ mature T cells. These cells, which represent 0.1-0.5% of total peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), express substantial levels of CD4, but lack CD3 surface expression. At a molecular level, they express the pre-T cell receptor  (pT) gene, CD3-, CD- and CD-, and RAG-1 recombination enzyme and have initiated rearrangements in the T cell receptor (TCR)- locus (D-J). Moreover, low levels of CD3 protein, but not of TCR- chain, can be detected in their cytoplasm. Our results suggest that CD4⁺CD3 cells identified in peripheral blood are different from CD3CD4⁺CD8 thymocytes and may contain precursors of an extrathymic T cell differentiation pathway.

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