Boersma W, Eliason J F
Exp Hematol. 1982 Aug;10(7):568-77.
Prothymocytes were present in long-term marrow cell cultures for 17 weeks, although at very low levels. The prothymocytes from the cultures appeared normal in their thymus repopulation ability since the growth curves for thymocytes derived from cultured cells, measured in thymuses of irradiated mice, were parallel to those for thymocytes derived from fresh bone marrow prothymocytes. The buoyant density distribution for prothymocytes from the cultures appeared normal as well, with a modal density of 1,069 g/cm3. The prothymocyte density profile was similar to that for CFUS from the cultures which had a modal density of 1.070 g/cm3. Prothymocytes were lost from culture before CFUS and a decreased ratio of prothymocytes to CFUS was evident within the first 24 hours of culture. The kinetic differences between prothymocytes and CFUS in vitro suggest that these two functional assays detect different cells.
原胸腺细胞存在于长期骨髓细胞培养物中达17周，尽管水平非常低。培养物中的原胸腺细胞在其胸腺再填充能力方面看起来正常，因为在受照射小鼠的胸腺中测量的源自培养细胞的胸腺细胞生长曲线与源自新鲜骨髓原胸腺细胞的胸腺细胞生长曲线平行。培养物中原胸腺细胞的浮力密度分布也看起来正常，其模态密度为1.069 g/cm³。原胸腺细胞的密度分布曲线与培养物中CFUS的相似，CFUS的模态密度为1.070 g/cm³。原胸腺细胞在CFUS之前从培养物中消失，并且在培养的最初24小时内原胸腺细胞与CFUS的比例明显下降。体外原胸腺细胞和CFUS之间的动力学差异表明这两种功能测定检测的是不同的细胞。
