Morphologic and Antigenic Maturation of Lymphocytes in the Mouse Thymus In Vitro

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Abstract
A simple technique for organ culture of the thymus of 14 day old mouse embryos is described. It allowed a characteristic time-dependent development of the immature thymus into a lymphoid thymus with large numbers of nondividing small lymphocytes. Most of these cells carried the T[thymus-derived]-lymphocyte antigenic markers Thy-1 and TL [thymus leukemia], and all expressed H-2 antigens as determined in cytotoxicity assays. They probably developed from precursor cells without detectable Thy-1 and TL. This development appeared to be dependent on the thymic microenvironment, since it also occurred in serum-free organ cultures and in cultures with medium supplemented with serum from nude mice.