In vitro effects of deoxyguanosine (dGuo) on thymic stromal cells. A discussion.

Different in vitro approaches have been used to enrich thymic epithelial cells for the analysis of their role in inducing tolerance. One widely used approach consists of the organ culture of mouse fetal thymic lobes (FTOCs) in the presence of 2'-deoxyguanosine (dGuo), that is thought to selectively eliminate both thymocytes and interdigitating cells/dendritic cells (IDCs/DCs) from the thymic cultured tissue. The dGuo-induced effects on rat thymic stromal cells appear to differ from those described in mouse. In this paper we present evidence supporting the presence of rat DCs in both thymic cultured fragments and thymic stromal cell primary cultures after dGuo treatment. Possible explanations for these contradictory results are discussed.