Establishment of a Reticuloepithelial-Like Cell Line from Mouse Thymuses and its Feeder Capacity for the Growth of Bone Marrow Cells

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Abstract
A reticuloepithelial-like cell line (B6TE) was established from normal thymuses of 4 week-old C57BL/6J mice. The cells were polygonal and had a pavement-like arrangement in the confluent state. Desmosome-like structures and tight junctions were seen at the adjacent cellular mem-branes on electron microscopic observation. The doubling time was 24 h and the saturation density was 1 × 105 cells/cm2. The cell line had the ability to proliferate and differentiate bone marrow cells exceedingly well. When 1 × 105 cells/ml of nucleated bone marrow cells were cultured on an irradiated mono-layer of B6TE cells, the bone marrow cells multiplied greatly and reached 1.6 × 105 cells/ml after 7 days. Most of the proliferated bone marrow cells belonged to the myelocytic lineage. Mitotic and blast cells adhered to B6TE feeder cells forming a cluster in their early culture days. The feeder activity of B6TE cells was 5 times more potent than that of L cells and of mouse embryo fibroblasts. The interaction between the cell line and undifferentiated bone marrow cells should provide a useful model for the investigation of hematopoietic inductive microenvironme nts.