Hays E F, Alpert P F
J Exp Med. 1969 Oct 1;130(4):847-57. doi: 10.1084/jem.130.4.847.
Neonatally thymectomized mice were implanted with thymus grafts composed of epithelial reticular cells for periods of 7 and 14 days. Regardless of whether the grafts were placed immediately after thymectomy, or at 3 wk of age, there was little recovery of the lymphocyte depletion and impaired immunologic responsiveness, characteristically found in a neonatally thymectomized host. The findings were similar in animals studied at 2 months or 2 wk after graft removal. Many of the short-term remnant grafts were populated with lymphocytes and had attained the morphologic appearance of thymus by 14 days. A lesser degree of lymphocyte depletion and impaired responsiveness to SRBC occurred if thymectomy was delayed until 7 days of age, if remnant grafts were removed after 2 months, and if intact neonatal thymus was used for the short-term grafts. Complete normality was found in some of the animals in all of these groups. These observations suggest a direct role for mature thymus lymphocytes in reconstituting the neonatally thymectomized host and indicate that epithelial cell function is to direct the maturation of cells that ultimately behave as thymus lymphocytes.
将新生期切除胸腺的小鼠植入由上皮网状细胞组成的胸腺移植物，持续7天和14天。无论移植物是在胸腺切除术后立即植入，还是在3周龄时植入，淋巴细胞减少和免疫反应受损的情况几乎没有恢复，而这是新生期切除胸腺的宿主特有的表现。在移植物移除后2个月或2周研究的动物中，结果相似。许多短期残留移植物中有淋巴细胞聚集，到14天时已达到胸腺的形态外观。如果将胸腺切除术推迟到7日龄，如果在2个月后移除残留移植物，以及如果使用完整的新生胸腺进行短期移植，淋巴细胞减少的程度和对绵羊红细胞（SRBC）反应受损的程度会较轻。在所有这些组的一些动物中发现完全正常。这些观察结果表明成熟的胸腺淋巴细胞在重建新生期切除胸腺的宿主中起直接作用，并表明上皮细胞的功能是指导最终表现为胸腺淋巴细胞的细胞的成熟。
