Skinner M A, Moffatt L, Marbrook J
Department of Immunobiology, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Immunol Cell Biol. 1989 Apr;67 ( Pt 2):107-14. doi: 10.1038/icb.1989.15.
During organ culture of foetal thymic lobes, up to 5% of the thymic cells migrate out of the lobes and a majority of these have phenotypic characteristics of thymocytes or macrophages. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) increases the number of these migrant cells, and cytotoxic cells can be detected which display natural killer cell surface markers. In contrast, although cytotoxic activity can be detected in cells from adult thymic fragments cultured with IL-2, the cytotoxic activity is not detected with natural killer sensitive target cells. The appearance of natural killer-like cells during the culture of foetal thymic lobes suggests that they are involved in differentiation events which occur at this time in the thymus.
在胎儿胸腺叶的器官培养过程中，高达5%的胸腺细胞会迁移出胸腺叶，其中大多数具有胸腺细胞或巨噬细胞的表型特征。白细胞介素-2（IL-2）可增加这些迁移细胞的数量，并且能够检测到显示自然杀伤细胞表面标志物的细胞毒性细胞。相比之下，尽管在用IL-2培养的成年胸腺碎片细胞中可检测到细胞毒性活性，但用自然杀伤敏感靶细胞却检测不到这种细胞毒性活性。胎儿胸腺叶培养过程中自然杀伤样细胞的出现表明它们参与了此时胸腺中发生的分化事件。
