Subpopulations of T lymphocytes emigrating in venous blood draining pig thymus labelled in vivo with fluorochrome.

The emigration of labelled thymus cells in the pig was studied directly in blood draining the large right distal cervical lobe of the thymus after controlled labelling with FITC delivered through cannulated branches of a main thymic artery and vein by temporary ex vivo perfusion at body temperature. Roughly 1% of thymic cells emigrated per day. Unlike most thymocytes, which are small, the size spectrum of thymic emigrants is slightly larger than that of typical blood lymphocytes. Surface-marker studies show that the surface phenotypes of the emigrants differ from both typical thymus and peripheral blood lymphocytes. Although the emigrants resemble thymocytes in the high proportion of strong rosettes formed with sheep red blood cells (RBC), they rosette poorly with pig red cells, particularly in the unenhanced saline test, in this respect behaving like blood lymphocytes. The peripheral T-cell subset bearing a Fc receptor is almost absent in thymus, but is well represented among the emigrants which thus resemble corticosteroid-resistant thymocytes in the pig. The large population of thymus-dependent Null lymphocytes in young pig blood apparently arise in thymus since they constitute 1/3 of emigrants, although only forming less than 10% of thymus cells. This emigration of thymic cells is discussed in relation to its implications for the turnover of known functional peripheral T-cell populations.