Thymocytes can be stimulated to give a strong vaccinia virus-immune cytotoxic T lymphocyte response.
The emergence of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) precursors in thymus can be examined directly by stimulating thymocytes for 6 days in irradiated, virus-infected recipients. Responsiveness is a characteristic of the thymocytes themselves and does not reflect the presence of contaminating, blood-bourne T cells. Strong CTL activity may be generated earlier from thymus than from spleen or lymph node of lethally irradiated, bone marrow reconstituted mice. Also, the reconstitution of virus-immune CTL function in these peripheral lymphoid organs is thymus-dependent. Use of this simple experimental protocol offers considerable possibilities for the analysis of the role of the thymus in the ontogeny of the T cell repertoire.
D000818:Animals; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D011828:Radiation Chimera; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000276:immunology*