Sainte-Marie C, Peng F S
Rev Can Biol. 1975 Dec;34(4):205-12.
After an intramediastinal injection of labelled thymic cells, few cells were found in the pseudo-follicles of the draining nodes while the extrafollicular zone of their cortex contained abundant labelled cells (Sainte-Marie and Peng, in press). We proposed that the cells having migrated into the pseudo-follicles were small lymphocytes of the thymic medulla, or medullary small thymocytes, which accounts for about 5% of the thymocyte population. The purpose of the present study was to test the validity of the proposal. Rats received corticosterone injections to destroy, their cortical thymocytes and, thereafter, a dose of 3H-cytidine in order to label the surviving medullary small thymocytes. One hour later, these cells were suspended and injected in the mediastinal cavity of recipients which were killed 3 and 24 hours after the injection. The radio-autographs of the draining, and of the remaining, nodes revealed that most labelled cells, present in the nodes at the 24-hour interval, were situated mostly in the pseudo-follicles. The finding indicates, that, unlike the cortical small thymocytes, the medullary small thymocytes can migrate into pseudo-follicles. This is probably due to the greater motility of the medullary small thymocytes and possibly, to their involvement in the function(s) carried out in the pseudo-follicles.
在向纵隔内注射标记的胸腺细胞后，在引流淋巴结的假滤泡中发现的细胞很少，而其皮质的滤泡外区含有大量标记细胞（圣玛丽和彭，即将发表）。我们提出迁移到假滤泡中的细胞是胸腺髓质的小淋巴细胞，即髓质小胸腺细胞，约占胸腺细胞群体的5%。本研究的目的是检验该提议的有效性。给大鼠注射皮质酮以破坏其皮质胸腺细胞，然后注射一剂3H-胞苷以标记存活的髓质小胸腺细胞。一小时后，将这些细胞悬浮并注射到受体的纵隔腔中，在注射后3小时和24小时处死受体。引流淋巴结和其余淋巴结的放射自显影片显示，在24小时间隔时淋巴结中存在的大多数标记细胞主要位于假滤泡中。这一发现表明，与皮质小胸腺细胞不同，髓质小胸腺细胞可以迁移到假滤泡中。这可能是由于髓质小胸腺细胞具有更大的运动性，也可能是由于它们参与了在假滤泡中进行的功能。
