E-Book Overview
Kelly P. Kearse and a panel of laboratory experts describe the step-by-step execution of a wide variety of basic and specialized techniques for the study of T cell developmental biology and of their subsequent activation. Readily reproducible, the techniques are explained concisely, but in such detail that they are suitable for both the novice and experienced investigator. Coverage includes treatment of both fundamental and novel experimental protocols for the analysis of the role T cells play in immune function and in the prevention and cure of human diseases. Practical and timely, T Cell Protocols: Development and Activation offers basic scientists and clinical investigators a valuable compendium of key protocols that will improve skills with existing methods, as well as afford rapid mastery of powerful new techniques.
E-Book Content
Methods in Molecular Biology
TM
VOLUME 134
T Cell Protocols Development and Activation Edited by
Kelly P. Kearse
HUMANA PRESS
Insights into T-Cell Development
3
1 Insights into T-Cell Development from Studies Using Transgenic and Knockout Mice M. Albert Basson and Rose Zamoyska 1. Introduction T-cell differentiation is a tightly controlled developmental program observed as the stepwise progression of immature thymocytes through several unique stages characterized by the expression of distinct combinations of cell surface markers. The advancement of thymocytes from one stage to the next requires the successful completion of one or more specific developmental processes, accompanied by the acquisition of receptors, which signal a cell to transit through certain critical checkpoints to a more mature stage. The techniques of transgenesis and germ-line targeting are particularly useful in the study of such complex developmental programs, in that specific players can be manipula