Influence of antibodies neutralizing cytokines on murine fetal thymic organ cultures.

The role of cytokines in early T cell development was evaluated in a thymic organ culture system. Fetal thymic lobes from 14 day old mouse embryo's were cultured in the presence of antibodies neutralizing either IL-4, IL6 or TNF. In addition antibodies neutralizing TNF were added to cultures supplemented with human recombinant IL-2. The influence of these different treatments were evaluated by analyzing the different subsets generated after 12 days of culture with a panel of monoclonal antibodies. The antibody treatment did not result in dramatic changes in the cell populations nor did the anti-TNF inhibit the significant changes that are induced by the IL-2 treatment. These results show that based on the cellularity and thymocyte subsets no influence can be shown by inhibiting these cytokines. Other criteria, e.g. repertoire specificity have to be evaluated to address the influence of these treatments on early T cell development.