Lymphocyte accumulation in the spleen of retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor γ-deficient mice

Nu Zhang, Jian Guo, You Wen He

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The hormone nuclear receptor retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor γ (RORγ) plays important roles in thymocyte development and lymphoid organogenesis. RORγ and its thymus-specific isoform RORγt are expressed in the thymus, but not in the spleen and bone marrow (BM). However, RORγ-/- mice have 2- to 3-fold more splenocytes than wild-type controls due to an accumulation of conventional resting B lymphocytes. The increase in B lymphocytes in RORγ-/- mice is caused neither by abnormal B cell development in the BM nor by an obvious defect in the peripheral T cell compartment. Furthermore, analyses of BM chimeras using either RORγ-/- or recombinase-activating gene-2-/- mice as recipients and wild-type or RORγ -/- mice as donors, respectively, demonstrate that the splenic microenvironment of RORγ-/- mice is defective, since wild-type T and B lymphocytes accumulated in these chimeric mice. In addition, T lymphocyte homeostasis was altered due to a lowered thymic output in RORγ-/- mice. Collectively, these results suggest that RORγ regulates lymphocyte homeostasis at multiple levels.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1667-1675
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Immunology
Volume171
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 15 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology

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