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. 1995 Aug 1;92(16):7545–7549. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.16.7545

Normal development and function of natural killer cells in CD3 epsilon delta 5/delta 5 mutant mice.

V Renard 1, L Ardouin 1, M Malissen 1, G Milon 1, M Lebastard 1, A Gillet 1, B Malissen 1, E Vivier 1
PMCID: PMC41376  PMID: 7638228

Abstract

The CD3 epsilon polypeptide contributes to the cell surface display as well as to the signal transduction properties of the T-cell antigen receptor complex. Intriguingly, the distribution of CD3 epsilon is not restricted to T cells, since activated mouse, human, and avian natural killer (NK) cells do express intracytoplasmic CD3 epsilon polypeptides. CD3 epsilon is also present in the cytoplasm of fetal thymic T/NK bipotential progenitor cells, suggesting that it constitutes a component of the NK differentiation program. We report here that the genetic disruption of CD3 epsilon exon 5 alters neither NK cell development nor in vitro and in vivo NK functions, although it profoundly blocked T-cell development. These results support the notion that CD3 epsilon is dispensable for mouse NK cell ontogeny and function and further suggest that the common NK/T-cell progenitor cell utilizes CD3 epsilon as a mandatory component only when differentiating toward the T-cell lineage.

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