Frasca D, Adorini L, Doria G
Eur J Immunol. 1987 May;17(5):727-30. doi: 10.1002/eji.1830170524.
Injection of old mice with thymosin alpha 1, a synthetic peptide consisting of 28 amino acid residues and exhibiting thymic hormone-like activity, increases the splenic frequency of T cell precursors. Young (3-month-old) or old (19-20-month-old) mice received a single i.p. injection of thymosin alpha 1 or of an equimolar amount of the N14 (N-terminal amino acid residues 1-14) or C14 (C-terminal amino acid residues 15-28) synthetic fragment of the thymosin alpha 1 molecule and their spleen cells were assayed 3 days later under limiting dilution conditions to assess the frequency of mitogen-responsive and interleukin 2-producing T cells. Injection of thymosin alpha 1 or of its N14 fragment increases the frequency of responsive T lymphocytes in old, but not in young mice whereas injection of the C14 fragment has no demonstrable effect in either young or old mice. These data are consistent with our previous observation that the biological activity of thymosin alpha 1 is restricted to the N-terminal half of the molecule and suggest that this peptide amplifies the pool of mitogen-responsive and interleukin 2-producing T cells in immunodeficient old mice.
给老年小鼠注射胸腺素α1（一种由28个氨基酸残基组成且具有胸腺激素样活性的合成肽），可提高脾中T细胞前体的频率。年轻（3月龄）或老年（19 - 20月龄）小鼠经腹腔单次注射胸腺素α1或等摩尔量的胸腺素α1分子的N14（N端氨基酸残基1 - 14）或C14（C端氨基酸残基15 - 28）合成片段，3天后在有限稀释条件下检测其脾细胞，以评估有丝分裂原反应性和产生白细胞介素2的T细胞的频率。注射胸腺素α1或其N14片段可提高老年小鼠而非年轻小鼠中有反应性T淋巴细胞的频率，而注射C14片段对年轻或老年小鼠均无明显作用。这些数据与我们之前的观察结果一致，即胸腺素α1的生物活性局限于分子的N端一半，并表明该肽可扩大免疫缺陷老年小鼠中有丝分裂原反应性和产生白细胞介素2的T细胞库。
