Lineage plasticity and commitment in T-cell development

The earliest stages of intrathymic T-cell development include not only the acquisition of T-cell characteristics but also programmed loss of potentials for B, natural killer, and dendritic cell development. Evidence from genetics and cell-transfer studies suggests an order and some components of the mechanisms involved in loss of these options, but some of the interpretations conflict. The conflicts can be resolved by a view that postulates overlapping windows of developmental opportunity and individual mechanisms regulating progression along each pathway. This view is consistent with molecular evidence for the expression patterns of positive regulators of non-T developmental pathways, SCL, PU.1 and Id2, in early thymocytes. To some extent, overexpression of such regulators redirects thymocyte development in vitro. Specific commitment functions may normally terminate this developmental plasticity. Both PU.1 overexpression and stimulation of ectopically expressed growth factor receptors can perturb T- and myeloid/dendritic-cell divergence, but only in permissive stages. A cell-line system that approximates DN3-stage thymocytes reveals that PU.1 can alter specification even in a homogeneous population. However, the response of the population to PU.1 is sharply discontinuous. These studies show a critical role for regulatory context in restricting plasticity, which is probably maintained by interacting transcription factor networks.