Table 1.
List of chemokines and their receptors that are expressed in the thymus
| Chemokine | Chemokine-expressing cells | Receptor | Receptor-expressing cells in the thymus |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCL25 (TECK) | Thymic primordium [22] | CCR9 | Bone marrow-derived T-lineage precursors and ETPs [11, 23] |
| cTECs and mTECs [40, 41] | DN3-DN4, DP and a subset of SP thymocytes [45] | ||
| Thymic dendritic cells and endothelial cells [42] | DP thymocytes and CD62L− CD69+ SP thymocytes [40, 43, 46, 137, 138] | ||
| CXCL12 (SDF1-α) | cTECs [33] cTECs and | CXCR4 | DN1 to DN4 thymocytes [33, 37, 139] |
| mTECs [41] | DN, DP, and a subset of SP thymocytes [37, 139 ] | ||
| Blood venules in the cortex and CMJ [34, 59] | |||
| CCL19 (ELC, MIP3β) | mTECs [41, 75, 80], endothelial venules in the medulla [41, 80, 121] | CCR7 | DN1 and DN2 thymocytes [41] SP thymocytes [41, 75, 80, 81, 137, 139] |
| CCL21 (SLC) | Parathyroid primordium [22] mTECs [41, 75, 121] | TCR-stimulated DP thymocytes [75] | |
| CCL17 (TARC) | Dendritic cells [140, 141] | CCR4 | CD3 + CD4 + CD8low thymocytes [81] |
| CCL22 (MDC) | A subset of mTECs, outer walls of Hassall’s corpuscles [80, 81] | CD62L−CD69+ SP thymocytes [137] | |
| CD4 + CD8low and DP thymocytes [80] |
The synonyms for the chemokine are shown in parentheses
CCL CC-chemokine ligand, CCR CC-chemokine receptor, CXCR CXC-chemokine receptor, CXCL CXC-chemokine ligand, SDF stromal-cell-derived factor, TECK thymus-expressed chemokine, ELC Epstein–Barr virus-induced molecule 1 ligand chemokine, MIP3β macrophage inflammatory protein 3β, SLC secondary lymphoid-tissue chemokine, MDC macrophage-derived chemokine, TARC thymus and activation-regulated chemokine, CMJ cortico-medullary junction, cTECs cortical thymic epithelial cells, mTECs medullary thymic epithelial cells, DN double negative, DP double positive, SP single positive, TCR T-cell receptor