| pubmed-article:20974990 | pubmed:abstractText | The Ag receptors on ?? and ?? T cells differ not only in the nature of the ligands that they recognize but also in their signaling potential. We hypothesized that the differences in ??- and ??TCR signal transduction were due to differences in the intracellular signaling pathways coupled to these two TCRs. To investigate this, we used transcriptional profiling to identify genes encoding signaling molecules that are differentially expressed in mature ?? and ?? T cell populations. Unexpectedly, we found that B lymphoid kinase (Blk), a Src family kinase expressed primarily in B cells, is expressed in ?? T cells but not in ?? T cells. Analysis of Blk-deficient mice revealed that Blk is required for the development of IL-17-producing ?? T cells. Furthermore, Blk is expressed in lymphoid precursors and, in this capacity, plays a role in regulating thymus cellularity during ontogeny. | lld:pubmed |
