Lederman H M, Lee J W, Cohen A, Gelfand E W
Clin Exp Immunol. 1984 Feb;55(2):388-96.
A bovine serum albumin gradient was used to separate two populations of human thymocytes--a minority population (8%) of large thymocytes (LT) and a majority population (92%) of small thymocytes (ST). Fifty per cent of LT cells were in the S, G2 or M phases of the cell cycle compared to 5% of ST cells and 15% of unfractionated thymocytes. LT cells proliferated in response to T cell mitogens and included all of the T colony precursor cells (TCPC). In contrast, ST cells proliferated with mitogens only in the presence of added T cell growth factors and contained none of the thymocyte TCPC. ST cells neither helped nor suppressed the function of LT cells in any assay. This separation technique has provided a rapid method for isolating functionally distinct thymic lymphocyte subpopulations and permitted a further definition of the TCPC in the human thymus. Furthermore it should prove useful in studies of thymocytes at different stages of the cell cycle.
利用牛血清白蛋白梯度分离出两类人胸腺细胞群体——少数群体（8%）的大胸腺细胞（LT）和多数群体（92%）的小胸腺细胞（ST）。与5%的ST细胞和15%的未分离胸腺细胞相比，50%的LT细胞处于细胞周期的S期、G2期或M期。LT细胞对T细胞有丝分裂原产生增殖反应，并且包含所有的T集落前体细胞（TCPC）。相比之下，ST细胞仅在添加T细胞生长因子的情况下对有丝分裂原产生增殖反应，且不包含任何胸腺细胞TCPC。在任何检测中，ST细胞既不促进也不抑制LT细胞的功能。这种分离技术提供了一种快速分离功能不同的胸腺淋巴细胞亚群的方法，并有助于进一步明确人类胸腺中的TCPC。此外，它在研究处于细胞周期不同阶段的胸腺细胞时应会证明是有用的。
