B and T Cells in Bone Marrow and Thymus

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B and T cells begin their development in the bone marrow and share the following stages in their very initial development. Pleuripotent hematopoeitc stem cells (HSC) of the bone marrow either self renew or express CD117, which binds to stem cell factor on the surface of bone marrow stroma signalling the differenetiation of HSC to Multipotent progenitor1. The next step, again shared, is the expression of RAG1/RAG2 which is necessary for T and B cell receptor development and commits the cell becoming to an early lymphoid progenitor (ELP)1. ELPs can remain in the bone marrow and become B cells or migrate to the thymus to become T cells.

The cells that migrate to the Thymus and meet the thymic stroma, which expresses Delta-like ligands that bind the notch receptor on the precursor cells2. This ligand-receptor interaction induces notch-1 dependent signals in the cell which commits the precursor to the T cell lineage, and prevents B cell development. On the other hand, in the bone marrow Notch-1 is turned off, ensuring the precursor commits to the B cell development and not T cell development2.

The bone marrow and the thymus are both primary lymphoid organs, as a primary lymphoid organ their activity and size is not antigen dependent and in a healthy person are sterile environments as they are not involved in mounting an immune response. It can be seen the thymus is an organ dedicated to the development of T cells, whereas the bone marrow is not solely dedicated to B cell development. Thus there is no analogous organ that is exclusively dedicated to B cell development like the thymus is to T cell development. Development of T cells occurs mostly during the pre-adolescent period, after which the thymus begins to involute, become fa...

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...h is then tested against self-antigen1. Becoming anergic deems the BCR non-responsive and non-sensitive to further antigen stimuli.

Using self-antigen as the basis of the tolerance tests is central to both B and T cells tolerance; this is due to the fact that these primary lymphoid organs only have access to self-peptides as they are sterile non-antigen dependent environments.

Those that have been selected migrate to the periphery where they complete their development; for both B and T cells it is as little as 10% of cells that actually migrate to the periphery1 the rest die in their respective primary lymphoid organs.

In closing, B and T cells start as a HSC in the bone marrow but develop through different lineages governed by Notch-signalling although both undergoing VDJ recombination, pre-receptor signalling and selection before migrating to the periphery.

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