Identification and Purification of Human T Cell Precursors.

ABSTRACT

During their development, human T cells undergo similar genomic changes and pass through the same developmental checkpoints as developing thymocytes in the mouse. The difference between both species, however, is that some of these developmental stages are characterized by different phenotypic markers, and as a result, evidence emerges that the molecular regulation of human T cell development subtly differs from the mouse (Taghon et al., Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 36075-97, 2021; Haddad et al., Immunity 24217-230, 2006; Hao et al., Blood 1111318-1326, 2008; Taghon and Rothenberg, Semin Immunopathol 30383-398, 2008). In this chapter, we describe in detail how the different stages of human T cell development can be characterized and isolated using specific surface markers.