The immortalization of thymic nurse cells by SV40 virus.
Thymic nurse cells (TNCs) are stromal elements that contain between 20 and 200 T cells within their cytoplasm. Because of this unique feature they are believed to play a role in thymocyte development. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to obtain pure TNCs in quantities sufficient for extensive evaluation of their thymic function. As a result, only a limited amount of information is available that characterizes TNCs or the T cell population(s) found within their cytoplasm. We have now used SV40 to infect and immortalize TNCs from C57BL/6 mice. SV40-transformed TNCs were found to specifically bind and internalize cells from an immature thymocyte line isolated in our laboratory. These results describe a method of obtaining pure populations of TNCs for future studies of their thymic function, and suggest that binding to specific subpopulations of lymphoblasts may be necessary for internalization.
Pezzano
M
M
Department of Biology, City College of New York, New York 10031.
Li
Y
Y
Yang
Y M
YM
Guyden
J
J
D000818:Animals; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010641:Phenotype; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology*