Frequency of T-Cell Progenitors in Nude Mice

摘要

The hypothesis that prothymocytes are distinct from and regulated independently ofmultilineage hemopoietic progenitors was tested by enumeration of these two cell populationsin normal versus congenitally athymic (nude) mice. The absence of a thymus and ofperipheral T cells in nude mice had no effect on the frequency of either multilineageprogenitors (day 12 CFU-S) or prothymocytes (CFU-T), suggesting that there is no feedbackregulation of CFU-T frequency. Thymus seeding from the bone marrow is therefore likelyto be regulated by the availability of niches for prothymocyte maturation, rather than byfeedback control of prothymocyte production.