{"doi":"10.4049/jimmunol.143.9.2917","title":"IL-7 promotes thymocyte proliferation and maintains immunocompetent thymocytes bearing <i>alpha beta</i> or gamma delta T-cell receptors in vitro: synergism with IL-2.","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n               <jats:p>IL-7 induced the proliferation of normal thymocytes and the effect was synergistically potentiated by a small dose of IL-2, which by itself hardly affected thymocyte proliferation. No synergism was observed between IL-7 and any one of the other lymphokines including IL-1, IL-3, and IL-4. The thymocyte culture stimulated with IL-7 and IL-2 consisted of single positive (CD4+CD8- and CD4-CD8+) and double negative (CD4-CD8-) populations, and double positive (CD4+CD8+) cells were completely deleted. Both single positive and double negative thymocytes expressed CD3, but only the former exhibited V beta 8 and V beta 6 in an expected proportion (approximately 30% in BALB/c mice) and the latter none at all. Immunoprecipitation of the cultured thymocytes by anti-TCR gamma antibody, on the other hand, revealed the presence of a TCR gamma chain. Taken together, these results indicated that the thymocyte cultured with IL-7 and IL-2 consisted of mature T cells bearing alpha beta or gamma delta TCR. Experiments using preselected thymocyte subpopulations indicated that double negative cells responded to both IL-7 and IL-2 with positive synergism when combined, while thymocytes enriched for single positive cells preferentially responded to IL-7 with little response to IL-2 and no detectable synergism. Double positive thymocytes showed no proliferation in response to IL-7 and IL-2. In contrast to single positive thymocytes, splenic T cells hardly responded to IL-7, although significant proliferation was induced in the presence of a low dose of IL-2. Thymocytes cultured with IL-7 and IL-2 showed little nonspecific cytotoxic activity, but responded to Con A or alloantigen, whereas those stimulated with a high dose of IL-2 alone exhibited potent cytotoxic activity. These results indicated that IL-7 was involved in the generation of immunocompetent T cells in the thymus in concert with IL-2.</jats:p>","journal":"The Journal of Immunology","year":1989,"id":678968,"datarank":0.7143260902196635,"base_score":4.762173934797756,"endowment":4.762173934797756,"self_citation_contribution":0.7143260902196635,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.7143260902196635,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":116,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1773179,"name":"M Ito","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1773978,"name":"T Sudo","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1773979,"name":"M Hattori","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1773980,"name":"S Kano","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1773981,"name":"Y Katsura","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1773982,"name":"N Minato","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1773977,"name":"H Okazaki","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"IL-7 promotes thymocyte proliferation and maintains immunocompetent thymocytes bearing <i>alpha beta</i> or gamma delta T-cell receptors in vitro: synergism with IL-2.","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n               <jats:p>IL-7 induced the proliferation of normal thymocytes and the effect was synergistically potentiated by a small dose of IL-2, which by itself hardly affected thymocyte proliferation. No synergism was observed between IL-7 and any one of the other lymphokines including IL-1, IL-3, and IL-4. The thymocyte culture stimulated with IL-7 and IL-2 consisted of single positive (CD4+CD8- and CD4-CD8+) and double negative (CD4-CD8-) populations, and double positive (CD4+CD8+) cells were completely deleted. Both single positive and double negative thymocytes expressed CD3, but only the former exhibited V beta 8 and V beta 6 in an expected proportion (approximately 30% in BALB/c mice) and the latter none at all. Immunoprecipitation of the cultured thymocytes by anti-TCR gamma antibody, on the other hand, revealed the presence of a TCR gamma chain. Taken together, these results indicated that the thymocyte cultured with IL-7 and IL-2 consisted of mature T cells bearing alpha beta or gamma delta TCR. Experiments using preselected thymocyte subpopulations indicated that double negative cells responded to both IL-7 and IL-2 with positive synergism when combined, while thymocytes enriched for single positive cells preferentially responded to IL-7 with little response to IL-2 and no detectable synergism. Double positive thymocytes showed no proliferation in response to IL-7 and IL-2. In contrast to single positive thymocytes, splenic T cells hardly responded to IL-7, although significant proliferation was induced in the presence of a low dose of IL-2. Thymocytes cultured with IL-7 and IL-2 showed little nonspecific cytotoxic activity, but responded to Con A or alloantigen, whereas those stimulated with a high dose of IL-2 alone exhibited potent cytotoxic activity. These results indicated that IL-7 was involved in the generation of immunocompetent T cells in the thymus in concert with IL-2.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":4.762173934797756,"endowment":4.762173934797756,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"2572646","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W1646719553","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":3.1714,"citation_percentile":0.92239352,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2012,"count":2},{"year":2014,"count":1},{"year":2017,"count":2},{"year":2019,"count":1},{"year":2021,"count":2},{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":1}],"oa_status":"bronze","license":"https://academic.oup.com/pages/standard-publication-reuse-rights","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://journals.aai.org/jimmunol/article-pdf/143/9/2917/1045384/2917.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://journals.aai.org/jimmunol/article-pdf/143/9/2917/1045384/2917.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://academic.oup.com/jimmunol/article-pdf/143/9/2917/62789307/2917.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.143.9.2917","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2572646","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Immunotherapy and Immune Responses","T-cell and B-cell Immunology","Immune Cell Function and Interaction"],"mesh_terms":["Animals","Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte","Cells, Cultured","Cytotoxicity, Immunologic","Drug Synergism","Flow Cytometry","Interleukin-2","Lymphocyte Activation","Mice, Inbred Strains","Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell","Thymus Gland","CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes","Interleukin-7","CD8 Antigens","Mice","In Vitro Techniques"],"keywords":["Thymocyte","CD8","Double negative","T-cell receptor","Biology","CD3","Molecular biology","T cell","Receptor","Interleukin 2","BETA (programming language)","In vitro","T lymphocyte","Lymphokine","Immunology","Cytokine","Antigen","Immune system","Biochemistry"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-17T11:55:47.899208Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}