Lymphoid Gene Upregulation on Circulating Progenitors Participates in Their T-Lineage Commitment.

Extrathymic T cell precursors can be detected in many tissues and represent an immediately competent population for rapid T cell reconstitution in the event of immunodeficiencies. Blood T cell progenitors have been detected, but their source in the bone marrow (BM) remains unclear. Prospective purification of BM-resident and circulating progenitors, together with RT-PCR single-cell analysis, was used to evaluate and compare multipotent progenitors (MPPs) and common lymphoid progenitors (CLPs).

Single-cell analysis of thymocyte differentiation: identification of transcription factor interactions and a major stochastic component in αβ-lineage commitment.

T cell commitment and αβ/γδ lineage specification in the thymus involves interactions between many different genes. Characterization of these interactions thus requires a multiparameter analysis of individual thymocytes. We developed two efficient single-cell methods: (i) the quantitative evaluation of the co-expression levels of nine different genes, with a plating efficiency of 99-100% and a detection limit of 2 mRNA molecules/cell; and (ii) single-cell differentiation cultures, in the presence of OP9 cells transfected with the thymus Notch1 ligand DeltaL4.

Gene coexpression analysis in single cells indicates lymphomyeloid copriming in short-term hematopoietic stem cells and multipotent progenitors.

Progressive restriction to a differentiation pathway results from both activation and silencing of particular gene expression programs. To identify the coexpression and the expression levels of regulatory genes during hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) differentiation toward the T cell branch, we applied a new single-cell RT-PCR technique to analyze the simultaneous expression of 13 genes in 9 functionally purified populations from the bone marrow and the thymus. We report in this paper that Lin(-)Sca1(+)ckit(+) HSCs display, at the single-cell level, a homogeneous and high transcriptional activity as do early thymic progenitors.

[New antitumor agent: In vitro activity on breast carcinoma cells].

Previous work showed that established interactions between water-soluble polymers and cell membrane receptors can lead to modulate cell proliferation and differentiation in vitro. These polymers can be considered as bioactive. The aim of this work was to establish the consequences of the interactions between human breast cancer cells MCF7 and polymers of various chemical compositions regarding cell adhesion and proliferation onto tissue culture plate.