Volume 11, Issue 5 e1447
Overview

IL7 receptor signaling in T cells: A mathematical modeling perspective

Jung-Hyun Park

Jung-Hyun Park

Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland

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Adam T. Waickman

Adam T. Waickman

Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland

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Joseph Reynolds

Joseph Reynolds

Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC), Unilever, UK

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Mario Castro

Mario Castro

Universidad Pontificia Comillas, GISC and DNL, Madrid, Spain

Department of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

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Carmen Molina-París

Corresponding Author

Carmen Molina-París

Department of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Correspondence

Carmen Molina-París, Department of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

Email: [email protected]

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First published: 28 May 2019
Citations: 3

Funding information European Union FP7 Programme, Grant/Award Number: PIRSES-GA-2012-317893; European Union H2020 Programme, Grant/Award Number: 764698 MSCA-ITN-2017 (QuanTII ETN); Spanish Ministry of Economy, Grant/Award Numbers: FIS2016-78883-C2-2-P, PRX 16/00287

Abstract

Interleukin-7 (IL7) plays a nonredundant role in T cell survival and homeostasis, which is illustrated in the severe T cell lymphopenia of IL7-deficient mice, or demonstrated in animals or humans that lack expression of either the IL7Rα or γ c chain, the two subunits that constitute the functional IL7 receptor. Remarkably, IL7 is not expressed by T cells themselves, but produced in limited amounts by radio-resistant stromal cells. Thus, T cells need to constantly compete for IL7 to survive. How T cells maintain homeostasis and further maximize the size of the peripheral T cell pool in face of such competition are important questions that have fascinated both immunologists and mathematicians for a long time. Exceptionally, IL7 downregulates expression of its own receptor, so that IL7-signaled T cells do not consume extracellular IL7, and thus, the remaining extracellular IL7 can be shared among unsignaled T cells. Such an altruistic behavior of the IL7Rα chain is quite unique among members of the γ c cytokine receptor family. However, the consequences of this altruistic signaling behavior at the molecular, single cell and population levels are less well understood and require further investigation. In this regard, mathematical modeling of how a limited resource can be shared, while maintaining the clonal diversity of the T cell pool, can help decipher the molecular or cellular mechanisms that regulate T cell homeostasis. Thus, the current review aims to provide a mathematical modeling perspective of IL7-dependent T cell homeostasis at the molecular, cellular and population levels, in the context of recent advances in our understanding of the IL7 biology.

This article is categorized under:

  • Models of Systems Properties and Processes > Organ, Tissue, and Physiological Models
  • Biological Mechanisms > Cell Signaling
  • Models of Systems Properties and Processes > Mechanistic Models
  • Analytical and Computational Methods > Computational Methods

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.