Postirradiation thymocyte regeneration after bone marrow transplantation. III Intrathymic differentiation and development of thymocyte subpopulations

Abstract
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.

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