High expression of the Thy-1 antigen on natural killer cells recently derived from bone marrow.
The subset of murine natural killer (NK) cells that kills lymphoma targets contains about 50% cells expressing the Thy-1 antigen and this has been one of the reasons for assigning NK cells to the T-cell differentiation lineage. It has now been shown that the proportion of the Thy-1+ NK cells is not constant: ca. 90% of the NK cells appearing in the spleens of irradiated mice injected 10-14 days previously with bone marrow cells (anti-Thy-1 plus complement treated) express this antigen. The donor origin of these Thy-1+ NK cells was demonstrated by using semisyngeneic bone marrow cells in transfers but this same phenomenon could also be observed after entirely syngeneic transfers, excluding the possibilities that this Thy-1+ NK activity is due to activated T cells or to the effect of T-cell activation products on NK cells. Additionally, these early NK cells expressed the asialo-GM1 antigen, which is found on murine NK cells but not on cytotoxic T cells. These data suggest that the precursors for NK cells in the bone marrow are Thy-1-, and that the first splenic NK cells derived from these progenitors express this antigen.
D000818:Animals; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000276:immunology*; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D011828:Radiation Chimera; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D018800:Thy-1 Antigens
D000954:Antigens, Surface; D018800:Thy-1 Antigens