Interleukin-7: An Interleukin for Rejuvenating the Immune System

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 1019; no. 1; pp. 116 - 122
• Main Authors: ASPINALL, RICHARD, HENSON, SIAN, PIDO-LOPEZ, JEFFREY, NGOM, PA TAMBA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-06-2004
• Subjects: Adult; Aging; Animals; antigen-specific receptor; Female; Humans; Immune System; Interleukin-7 - metabolism; Interleukin-7 - physiology; Male; Mice; Protein Conformation; Sex Factors; T cell; T-Lymphocytes - metabolism; Thymus Gland - metabolism; Thymus Gland - physiology
• ISSN: 0077-8923; 1749-6632
• DOI: 10.1196/annals.1297.021

: Infection of an individual (aged 20‐30 years) by a virus will cause a response from the T (thymus derived) lymphocytes of which there are approximately 3 × 1011. If the individual has not met the virus before, the response will come from the naive T cell subset (50 ± 10% of the total T cell pool at this age) containing recent thymic emigrants produced from the thymus at approximately 108 per day. Their antigen‐specific receptor has a defined specificity governed by the conformation of its two chains (α and β), and the repertoire of specificities is somewhere in the region of 2 × 107 to 108. A successful response leads to clonal expansion and the generation of memory T cells to the infecting agent.