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. 1971 Oct;21(4):659–674.

Differentation of foetal mouse thymus. Ultrastructure of organ cultures and of subcapsular grafts

T Mandel, Pamela J Russell
PMCID: PMC1408220  PMID: 5121757

Abstract

Thymuses removed from 12–13-day-old foetal (C57×CBA)F1 mice, were grown in organ culture for up to 25 days. Initially the thymuses consisted predominantly of undifferentiated epithelial cells and some large lymphoblasts. The epithelial cells differentiated rapidly but epithelial cells in mitosis were seen throughout the entire culture period. The lymphoblasts, however, showed a restricted period of proliferation between the 2nd and 10th days of culture which resulted in the production of large numbers of typical small lymphocytes. Many of these cells died in situ but even after 25 days many apparently viable small lymphocytes were present.

Some 14-day cultures were implanted beneath the kidney capsule of young neonatally thymectomized or sham thymectomized syngeneic mice. These grafts lost their complement of small lymphocytes within the first 24 hours but their epithelial cells rapidly started to proliferate and the grafts became infiltrated with large lymphoblasts. After 1 week a small thymus was reformed and after 6–10 weeks up to 50 mg of thymic tissue could be obtained from each graft. Electron microscopy showed that the cortex of the graft was indistinguishable from a normal thymus but the medulla was small and contained few characteristic medullary epithelial cells.

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