Limiting dilution analysis of ontogeny of self- and allo-reactive thymocytes of C57BL/6J mouse.
In the present study, functional development of mouse fetal through neonatal to adult thymocytes was analyzed by limiting dilution assay (LDA) in terms of allo-reactivity and self-reactivity. Self-reactive PTL-p were always much less than those of allo-reactive PTL-p at all ages examined in this study. These results imply that thymocyte proliferation is not predominantly driven by responses to self antigens in the thymus, and that self-reactive thymocytes do not develop prior to allo-reactive thymocytes during thymic ontogeny. It is unlikely that most of such proliferating, murine early fetal thymocytes are self-reactive; allo-reactive cells are unlikely to have been derived from self-reactive cells during T cell development.
Itoh
T
T
Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Rao
A
A
O'Brien
D
D
Nghiem
P
P
Cantor
H
H
D000818:Animals; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D015551:Autoimmunity; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology; D007519:Isoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D007958:Leukocyte Count / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H / Q000276:immunology; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development*
D001324:Autoantigens; D007519:Isoantigens