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Updated: May 6, 2026

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Maturation and emigration of single-positive thymocytes

Xi Xu1, Shusong Zhang, Pingping Li

  • 1Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Department of Immunology, Peking University Health Science Center, Ministry of Health, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Beijing 100191, China.

Clinical & Developmental Immunology
|November 5, 2013
PubMed

T lymphopoiesis in the thymus was thought to be completed once it reaches the single positive (SP) stage, a stage when T cells are "fully mature" and waiting to be exported at random or follow a "first-in-first-out" manner. Recent evidence, however, has revealed that the newly generated SP thymocytes undergo a multistage maturation program in the thymic medulla. Such maturation is followed by a tightly regulated emigration process and a further postthymic maturation of recent thymic emigrants (RTEs). This review summarizes recent progress in the late stage T cell development. The regulation of this developmental process is discussed.

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