Brelińska R, Warchol J B
Department Histology and Embryology, School of Medicine, Poznań, Poland.
Microsc Res Tech. 1997 Aug 1;38(3):250-66. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0029(19970801)38:3<250::AID-JEMT6>3.0.CO;2-Q.
Thymic nurse cells are defined in vitro as multicellular complexes of epithelial cells and thymocytes. Although these structures have been implicated in the intrathymic differentiation of thymocytes, little is known about the biology of this cell complex and about the occurrence of the cells in the thymus in situ. Therefore, to clarify the matter, in this review we have presented characteristics of epithelial cells capable of forming complexes with thymocytes, in light of the literature data and the experience of the authors. The structure of cells within the complexes allowed us to distinguish three types of thymic nurse cells. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the thymus and observations employing TEM and SEM demonstrated the presence of distinct types of complexes in various topographic regions of the thymus. Where possible, the functional relevance of the morphological data was analyzed.
胸腺哺育细胞在体外被定义为上皮细胞和胸腺细胞的多细胞复合体。尽管这些结构与胸腺细胞在胸腺内的分化有关，但对于这种细胞复合体的生物学特性以及其在胸腺原位的细胞存在情况知之甚少。因此，为了阐明这一问题，在本综述中，我们根据文献数据和作者的经验，介绍了能够与胸腺细胞形成复合体的上皮细胞的特征。复合体内细胞的结构使我们能够区分三种类型的胸腺哺育细胞。胸腺的三维重建以及使用透射电子显微镜（TEM）和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）的观察表明，在胸腺的不同地形区域存在不同类型的复合体。在可能的情况下，分析了形态学数据的功能相关性。
