Research output per year
Research output per year
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
The β-catenin/Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in all stages of T cell development. Nemo-like kinase (NLK) is an evolutionary conserved serine/threonine kinase and a negative regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway. NLK can directly phosphorylate histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), as well as T cell factor/lymphoid enhancer-binding factor (TCF/LEF), causing subsequent repression of target gene transcription. By engineering mice lacking NLK in early stages of T cell development, we set out to characterize the role NLK plays in T cell development and found that deletion of NLK does not affect mouse health or lymphoid tissue development. Instead, these mice harbored a reduced number of single-positive (SP) CD8+ thymocytes without any defects in the SP CD4+ thymocyte population. The decrease in SP CD8+ thymocytes was not caused by a block in differentiation from double-positive CD4+CD8+ cells. Neither TCR signaling nor activation was altered in the absence of NLK. Instead, we observed a significant increase in cell death and reduced phosphorylation of LEF1 as well as HDAC1 among NLK-deleted SP CD8+ cells. Thus, NLK seems to play an important role in the survival of CD8+ thymocytes. Our data provide evidence for a new function for NLK with regard to its involvement in T cell development and supporting survival of SP CD8+ thymocytes.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1830-1841 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Immunology |
Volume | 205 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Research output: Thesis › Doctoral Thesis (compilation)