Notch3 in generation and maintenance of the T lineage.

Scripps Research Institute, The, La Jolla CA

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Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY The thymus produces new T lymphocytes throughout life to maintain peripheral homeostasis and immune function. Unlike other tissues that undergo steady-state differentiation, the thymus contains no self-renewing stem or progenitor cells, and instead depends on constant recruitment of marrow-derived progenitors that circulate in the blood. The earliest intrathymic progenitors are multi-potent, but notably, lack B lineage potential, and thus do not correspond to any known progenitor in the marrow. Microenvironmental conditions inside the thymus induce these multipotent progenitors to adopt the T lineage fate, and to asymmetrically differentiate into multiple different T lineages. While Notch1 (N1) has been shown to play a key role in T lineage specification, it is inadequate to explain the complex process of generating multiple T lineages in the thymus. In conjunction with PHS award R21AI53739, we sought to identify other putative regulators of T lineage differentiation. Among the genes that we identified was Notch3 (N3). N3 knockout mice had already been generated and were found by other to be overtly normal, a finding that was confirmed in our laboratory. Surprisingly, however, we found that N3 deficiency results in a progressive, age-related degeneration of T progenitor activity in bone marrow. This phenotype is consistent with a human disease (CADASIL) associated with N3 deficiency (a heritable mutation), which is characterized by age-related (adult-onset) degeneration of vascular smooth muscle cells and recurrent strokes. Our current findings reveal N3 mutation to be the first known genetic defect leading to age-related degeneration of T lineage precursors in bone marrow. Further, the specificity of this requirement for N3 in marrow suggests that N3 may represent a marker for the long sought-after precursor to T lineage cells in marrow. Concisely stated, the goals of this project are 1) to expand and finalize for publication our finding that N3 is required to maintain T progenitor activity in marrow; 2) to identify N3-expressing cells in marrow, and compare their lineage potentials to those of early intrathymic progenitors (notably, for the presence of B lineage potential); 3) to ascertain whether N3 has a role in the thymus as well as the marrow, and to what extent this function overlaps with that of N1; and 4) to identify the targets of N3 signaling in the T lineage, and thus begin to define its molecular function. The approaches involve in vivo and in vitro assays for T lineage potential in bone marrow in mice at various ages; lineage tracing the progeny of marrow cells that signal through N3, using a N3:Cre fusion protein knock-in to conditionally activate a fluorescent reporter; in vivo and in vitro assessment of lineage potential in the reporter-positive cells; intrathymic deletion of N3, and intrathymic deletion of N1 at intermediate stage in N3-deficient mice; assessment of N3 signaling activity in thymus and marrow progenitors, using a N3:Gal3 fusion protein knock-in; and assessment of gene expression in cells that signal through N3, as well as their counterparts in young N3 knockout mice.