Human Thymus in Health and Disease: Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Biology

Overview

Journal Semin Immunol

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2023 Mar 2

PMID 36863139

Authors

Marita Bosticardo

Luigi D Notarangelo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The thymus is the crucial tissue where thymocytes develop from hematopoietic precursors that originate from the bone marrow and differentiate to generate a repertoire of mature T cells able to respond to foreign antigens while remaining tolerant to self-antigens. Until recently, most of the knowledge on thymus biology and its cellular and molecular complexity have been obtained through studies in animal models, because of the difficulty to gain access to thymic tissue in humans and the lack of in vitro models able to faithfully recapitulate the thymic microenvironment. This review focuses on recent advances in the understanding of human thymus biology in health and disease obtained through the use of innovative experimental techniques (eg. single cell RNA sequencing, scRNAseq), diagnostic tools (eg. next generation sequencing), and in vitro models of T-cell differentiation (artificial thymic organoids) and thymus development (eg. thymic epithelial cell differentiation from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells).

Citing Articles

Thymus Ontogeny and Development.

Montero-Herradon S, Garcia-Ceca J, Zapata A Adv Exp Med Biol. 2025; 1471:21-49.

PMID: 40067583 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-77921-3_2.

Thymic inborn errors of immunity.

Pala F, Notarangelo L, Lionakis M J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024; 155(2):368-376.

PMID: 39428079 PMC: 11805638. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2024.10.009.

Case report: Artificial thymic organoids facilitate clinical decisions for a patient with a variant and severe persistent T cell lymphopenia.

Gall A, Bosticardo M, Ma S, Chen K, Amini K, Pala F Front Immunol. 2024; 15:1438383.

PMID: 39364398 PMC: 11448704. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1438383.

Rediscovering the human thymus through cutting-edge technologies.

Pala F, Notarangelo L, Bosticardo M J Exp Med. 2024; 221(10).

PMID: 39167072 PMC: 11338284. DOI: 10.1084/jem.20230892.

Thymic microenvironment's impact on immunosenescence.

Li L, Xu F, Han Y, Zeng J, Du S, Wang C Immunol Res. 2024; 72(5):1161-1173.

PMID: 39042204 DOI: 10.1007/s12026-024-09519-z.

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