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. 1971 Oct;21(4):701–709.

Susceptability of human and murine lymphocytes and thymocytes to damage by hypotonic shock

A E Butterworth
PMCID: PMC1408243  PMID: 4107744

Abstract

The technique of Rotman and Papermaster (1966) for measuring the viability of lymphocytes by fluorochromasia has been adapted for assessing the effect of hypotonic solutions on lymphoid cells. Osmotic sensitivity curves for murine thymus and lymph node cells, and for human thymus and peripheral blood cells, have been produced. Lymph node and peripheral blood lymphocytes showed two populations of cells, differing in susceptibility to hypotonic shock. The smaller population had an osmotic sensitivity corresponding to that of thymocytes, and disappeared after thymectomy. Treatment of peripheral blood cells with solutions that damaged only the thymocyte-like population reduced transformation in mixed lymphocyte cultures significantly more than in phytohaemagglutinin or tuberculin stimulated cultures. It is suggested that the thymocyte-like population represents cells which have recently left the thymus and are still in an immunologically unprimed state.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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