Postirradiation thymocyte regeneration after bone marrow transplantation. III. Intrathymic differentiation and development of thymocyte subpopulations.
Fluorescence distributions of thymocytes stained for Thy-1 as well as size measurements were used to discriminate between thymocyte subpopulations during regeneration of the thymus after irradiation and bone marrow transplantation. Subpopulations with "low" and "high" Thy-1 density of donor- and recipient-derived progeny were quantitated. They were continuously present in the thymus and developed simultaneously but at different rates of growth. A similar developmental pattern was observed for donor- and host-derived "high" Thy-1+ cells, whereas "low" Thy-1+ cells of donor and recipient origin showed markedly different growth patterns. This indicated that development of the two subpopulations took place independently. During early regeneration donor-derived "low" and "high" Thy-1+ cells contain a high proportion of large cells, indicating the presence of cycling cells in both subpopulations.
D000818:Animals; D000955:Antigens, T-Independent; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D007700:Kinetics; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008806:Mice, Inbred AKR; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D011828:Radiation Chimera; D012038:Regeneration; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000502:physiology*
D000955:Antigens, T-Independent