Clarification of studies on the origin of thymic lymphocytes

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Abstract
The thesis that lymphocytes originate in situ by the direct transformation of epithelial cells within the thymic primordium in anurous frogs is untenable. On the contrary, in both the leopard frog and the African clawed toad, the lymphocytes that first appear in the embryonic thymus are derived from extrathymic lymphopoietc cells that invade the developing organ. The exact source of origin of the invading lymphopoietic cells remains problematic.