The ordered migration of thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla is critical for the appropriate selection of the mature T cell repertoire. Most studies of thymocyte migration rely on mouse models, but we know relatively little about how human thymocytes find their appropriate anatomical niches within the thymus. Moreover, the signals that retain CD4 + CD8 + double-positive (DP) thymocytes in the cortex and prevent them from entering the medulla prior to positive selection have not been identified in mice or humans. Here, we examined the intrathymic migration of human thymocytes in both mouse and human thymic stroma and found that human thymocyte subsets localized appropriately to the cortex on mouse thymic stroma and that MHC-dependent interactions between human thymocytes and mouse stroma could maintain the activation and motility of DP cells. We also showed that CXCR4 was required to retain human DP thymocytes in the cortex, whereas CCR7 promoted migration of mature human thymocytes to the medulla. Thus, 2 opposing chemokine gradients control the migration of thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla. These findings point to significant interspecies conservation in thymocyte-stroma interactions and provide the first evidence that chemokines not only attract mature thymocytes to the medulla, but also play an active role in retaining DP thymocytes in the cortex prior to positive selection.

Lentiviruses, unlike the gammaretroviruses, are able to infect nondividing cells by transiting through nuclear pores to access the host genomic DNA. Several nuclear import and nuclear pore components have been implicated as playing a role in nuclear import, including transportin 3 (TNPO3), a member of the importin-␤ family of nuclear import proteins. We demonstrated that TNPO3 was required by several lentiviruses, with simian immunodeficiency virus mac239 (SIVmac239) and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) the most dependent and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) the least. Analysis of HIV-1/SIVmac239 chimeric viruses showed that dependence on TNPO3 mapped to the SIVmac239 capsid. Mutation of a single amino acid, A76V in the SIVmac239 capsid, rendered the virus TNPO3 independent and resistant to mCPSF6-358, a truncated splicing factor that prevents HIV-1 nuclear import. Using a complementation assay based on 293T cells that express a TNPO3-targeted short hairpin RNA (shRNA), we showed that the Drosophila TNPO3 homologue can substitute for its human counterpart and that it mapped a key functional domain of TNPO3 to the carboxy-terminal cargo-binding domain. Within the cargo-binding domain, two hydrophobic motifs were required for TNPO3-dependent infection. The mutated TNPO3 proteins maintained their ability to localize to the nucleus, suggesting that their inability to restore lentivirus infection resulted from an inability to bind to a host or viral cargo protein.

Humanized mice represent an important model to study the development and function of the human immune system. While it is known that mouse thymic stromal cells can support human T-cell development, the extent of interspecies cross-talk and the degree to which these systems recapitulate normal human T-cell development remain unclear. To address these questions, we compared conventional and non-conventional T-cell development in a neonatal chimera humanized mouse model with that seen in human fetal and neonatal thymus samples, and also examined the impact of a human HLA-A2 transgene expressed by the mouse stroma. Given that dynamic migration and cell–cell interactions are essential for T-cell differentiation, we also studied the intrathymic migration pattern of human thymocytes developing in a murine thymic environment. We found that both conventional T-cell development and intra-thymic migration patterns in humanized mice closely resemble human thymopoiesis. Additionally, we show that developing human thymocytes engage in short, serial interactions with other human hematopoietic-derived cells. However, non-conventional T-cell differentiation in humanized mice differed from both fetal and neonatal human thymopoiesis, including a marked deficiency of Foxp3+ T-cell development. These data suggest that although the murine thymic microenvironment can support a number of aspects of human T-cell development, important differences remain, and additional human-specific factors may be required.

Specialized microenvironments within the thymus are comprised of unique cell types with distinct roles in directing the development of a diverse, functional, and self-tolerant T cell repertoire. As they differentiate, thymocytes transit through a number of developmental intermediates that are associated with unique localization and migration patterns. For example, during one particular developmental transition, immature thymocytes more than double in speed as they become mature T cells that are among the fastest cells in the body. This transition is associated with dramatic changes in the expression of chemokine receptors and their antagonists, cell adhesion molecules, and cytoskeletal components to direct the maturing thymocyte population from the cortex to medulla. Here we discuss the dynamic changes in behavior that occur throughout thymocyte development, and provide an overview of the cell-intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms that regulate human thymocyte migration.

Negative selection is one of the primary mechanisms that render T cells tolerant to self. Thymic dendritic cells play an important role in negative selection, in line with their ability to induce migratory arrest and sustained T cell receptor (TCR) signals. Thymocytes themselves display self-peptide/MHC class I complexes, and while there is evidence that they can support clonal deletion, it is not clear whether they do so directly, via stable cell-cell contacts and sustained TCR signals. Here we show that murine thymocytes can support surprisingly efficient negative selection of antigen-specific thymocytes. Further, we observe that agonist dependent thymocytethymocyte interactions occurred as stable, motile conjugates led by the peptide presenting thymocyte, and in which the trailing peptide-specific thymocyte exhibited persistent elevations in intracellular calcium concentration. These data confirm that self-antigen presentation by thymocytes is an additional mechanism to ensure T cell tolerance, and further strengthen the correlation between stable cellular contacts, sustained TCR signals, and efficient negative selection.