Subcapsular thymic lymphoblasts expose receptors for soy bean lectin.

In the course of analysing thymic cellular constituents concerning the expression of lectin receptors and defined lymphocyte differentiation antigens, respectively, a subpopulation of thymic lymphocytes was detected exposing both peanut lectin (PNL) and soy bean lectin (SBL) receptors on their surfaces, while the majority of cortical thymic lymphocytes were found to be PNL positive, but SBL negative. This subset of SBL+PNL+thymic lymphocytes in the adult populates the area beneath the thymic capsule, forming a narrow rim only, while in perinatal thymus a corresponding subcapsular cell layer comprises almost one third of the thymic tissue and in early ontogenesis the vast majority of thymic lymphoid cells are PNL+SBL+. By ultrastructural analysis of double labelled cell suspensions as well as of cells separated by affinity chromatography, it could be shown that PNL/SBL+ cells frequently exhibit morphological features of lymphoblastic cells. Thus this subcapsularly located subset seems to represent a compartment of proliferating immature cells, descended from bone marrow and foetal liver prethymic cells, respectively, and giving rise to PNL/SBL- cortical thymic lymphocytes.