Interleukin 7: effects on early events in lymphopoiesis.

Recently, rapid progress has been made in defining and characterizing those growth factors associated with the major hemopoietic lineages. In contrast, the regulatory factors associated with the commitment and differentiation of precursor cells in the early events of lymphogenesis are much less clearly understood. In this review, Christopher Henney describes the isolation and characterization of one such factor-IL-7-and its effect on early B- and T-cell development.