{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T19:10:25Z","timestamp":1789067425754,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":141,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,2]],"date-time":"2020-10-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1601596800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100014440","name":"Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovaci\u00f3n y Universidades","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RTI2018-093938-B-I00"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RTI2018-093938-B-I00"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100014440","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004587","name":"Instituto de Salud Carlos III","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RD16\/0011\/0002, Cell Therapy Network, TERCEL"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RD16\/0011\/0002, Cell Therapy Network, TERCEL"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004587","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100012818","name":"Comunidad de Madrid","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["S2017\/BMD-3692, Avancell"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["S2017\/BMD-3692, Avancell"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100012818","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cells"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Intimate interactions between thymic epithelial cells (TECs) and thymocytes (T) have been repeatedly reported as essential for performing intrathymic T-cell education. Nevertheless, it has been described that animals exhibiting defects in these interactions were capable of a proper positive and negative T-cell selection. In the current review, we first examined distinct types of TECs and their possible role in the immune surveillance. However, EphB-deficient thymi that exhibit profound thymic epithelial (TE) alterations do not exhibit important immunological defects. Eph and their ligands, the ephrins, are implicated in cell attachment\/detachment and govern, therefore, TEC\u2013T interactions. On this basis, we hypothesized that a few normal TE areas could be enough for a proper phenotypical and functional maturation of T lymphocytes. Then, we evaluated in vivo how many TECs would be necessary for supporting a normal T-cell differentiation, concluding that a significantly low number of TEC are still capable of supporting normal T lymphocyte maturation, whereas with fewer numbers, T-cell maturation is not possible.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cells9102226","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,2]],"date-time":"2020-10-02T09:39:25Z","timestamp":1601631565000},"page":"2226","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Intrathymic Selection and Defects in the Thymic Epithelial Cell Development"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Javier","family":"Garc\u00eda-Ceca","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain"},{"name":"Health Research Institute, Hospital 12 de Octubre (imas12), 28041 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sara","family":"Montero-Herrad\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain"},{"name":"Health Research Institute, Hospital 12 de Octubre (imas12), 28041 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Agust\u00edn G.","family":"Zapata","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain"},{"name":"Health Research Institute, Hospital 12 de Octubre (imas12), 28041 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,10,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1039","DOI":"10.1084\/jem.20041457","article-title":"Central tolerance to tissue-specific antigens mediated by direct and indirect antigen presentation","volume":"200","author":"Gallegos","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. 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