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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2008 Nov 25.
Published in final edited form as: Immunol Res. 2008;41(2):137–153. doi: 10.1007/s12026-008-8017-1

Figure 1. Maturation of CD4 thymic emigrants in the periphery.

Figure 1

CD4+ recent thymic emigrants can be subdivided into three stages of post-thymic maturation: Stage-1 cells have a half-life of about one week and do not divide. Maturation from stage-1 to stage-2 appears to be preprogrammed and independent from self MHC, leading stage-2 cells to undergo a few divisions by HP. Conversely, stage-3 cells require MHC for extensive proliferation. Under conditions of HP, CD44hi stage-3 cells appear within ~2 weeks and account for most of the cells seen in MHC-replete mice, but cells that can evade tuning or negative regulation survive in MHC-depleted hosts.