title: Separation of AKR mouse thymus lymphoma from normal thymic cells by centrifugal elutriation.
abstract: The rapid separation of large numbers of viable thymus cells from AKR mice bearing transplanted or spontaneous thymic lymphomas was achieved by centrifugal elutriation. Separation of more than 3 x 10(8) cells from either a transplanted lymphoma, designated 720, or from a spontaneous thymic lymphoma, required only 15 min. Unfractionated thymus cells obtained from mice bearing the transplanted lymphoma consisted of 80% lymphoma cells (by immunofluorescence for the viral protein, gp70) and 20% normal cells. Fractions of slowly sedimenting cells consisted almost exclusively of normal cells (95%) with modal volumes of 95 micrometers cubed. Fractions of rapidly sedimenting cells consisted of 95% tumor cells with volumes of 150-400 micrometers cubed. The slowly sedimenting cells were almost exclusively (98%) in the GO- or G1-phase. Fractions of rapidly sedimenting cells contained up to 55% S-phase and up to 30% G2-phase cells. Intermediate fractions contained mixtures of normal cells and small GO- or G1-phase tumor cells. Thymidine uptake by the separated cells was determined. The fractions containing normal cells showed little thymidine uptake after 4 and 48 h in culture, while the fractions of tumor cells showed high levels of incorporation. In contrast to the high levels of thymidine uptake by the tumor cell fractions after 48 h in culture, there was little uptake by the unseparated cell suspension, suggesting a possible interaction between normal and tumor cells during the culture period.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D002498:Centrifugation / Q000379:methods; D004247:DNA / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000032:analysis; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D008806:Mice, Inbred AKR; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000473:pathology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D006023:Glycoproteins; D004247:DNA