Common antibody-induced redistribution on thymocytes of strain-, species- and non-species-specific antigenic determinants shared by brain and thymocytes of mice.

Brain and thymocytes of rats, mice and fowls have certain antigenic determinants in common, which are restricted to these tissues. Among these, strain-, as well as species- and non-species-specific determinants have been detected with allotypic and heterologous antisera, respectively. With regard to the identical distribution pattern of these three different types of determinants on brain, thymus and lymph nodes it was suggested that they might belong to a common antigenic system. Using the technique of antibody-induced antigen redistribution, it is shown in the present paper that these three determinants on the thymocyte surface share a common molecular basic structure.