Wang Haiguang, Owen David L, Qian Lily J, Chopp Laura B, Farrar Michael A, Hogquist Kristin A
Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Bio Protoc. 2018 Dec 5;8(23):e3107. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3107.
To track recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) or study T cell development in the thymus, intra-thymic injection of a cellular tag or precursor cells for various T cell lineages is often desired. However, the traditional surgical approach to expose the thymus for intra-thymic injection is time-consuming and can cause a high level of pain and stress to animals, which might disrupt immune homeostasis, potentially confounding the results. Here, we introduce an ultrasound guided intra-thymic injection procedure, which is non-surgical and minimally invasive to animals. This technique is relatively easy to learn and offers an efficient and accurate tool to track RTEs or perform intra-thymic transfer of various cell types to investigate their differentiation.
为了追踪近期胸腺迁出细胞（RTEs）或研究胸腺中的T细胞发育，通常需要向胸腺内注射细胞标记物或各种T细胞谱系的前体细胞。然而，传统的通过手术暴露胸腺进行胸腺内注射的方法耗时较长，并且会给动物带来高水平的疼痛和应激，这可能会扰乱免疫稳态，从而潜在地混淆实验结果。在此，我们介绍一种超声引导下的胸腺内注射方法，该方法对动物而言是非手术且微创的。这项技术相对容易掌握，为追踪RTEs或进行各种细胞类型的胸腺内转移以研究其分化提供了一种高效且准确的工具。
