Functional and molecular analysis of B-lineage commitment suggests an instructive role for Il-7 in the earliest lymphoid restricted cells

Deficiencies in the Il-7 signaling pathway result in severe disruptions of lymphoid development in adult mice. In order to understand how Il-7 deficiency impacts early lymphoid development we have investigated lineage restriction events within the CLP compartment of Il-7 knock out mice. This revealed that while Il-7 deficiency had a minor impact on the development and functional properties of LY6D- multipotent CLPs, the formation of the lineage restricted LY6D+ CLP population was dramatically reduced. This was reflected in a low level transcription of B-lineage genes as well as in a loss of functional B-cell commitment in developing progenitors. The defect could not be rescued by ectopic expression of Bcl-2 suggesting that the cytokine act in an instructive manner in early lymphoid development. This clarifies the role of Il-7 in early lymphoid development and puts emphasis on the relevance of the recently defined lineage restricted progenitor cells in lymphoid differentiation.