Morphologic and antigenic maturation of lymphocytes in the mouse thymus in vitro.
A simple technique for organ culture of the thymus of 14-day-old mouse embryos is decribed. It allowed a characteristic time-dependent development of the immature thymus into a lymphoid thymus with large numbers of nondividing small lymphocytes. Most of these cells carried the T-lymphocyte antigenic markers Thy-1 and TL, and all expressed H-2 antigens as determined in cytotoxicity assays. They probably developed from precursor cells without detectable Thy-1 and TL. This development appeared to be dependent on the thymic microenvironment, since it also occurred in serum-free organ cultures and in cultures with medium supplemented with serum from nude mice.
D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D000939:Epitopes; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D007106:Immune Sera; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000196:embryology* / Q000276:immunology
D000939:Epitopes; D007106:Immune Sera