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. 1996 May;88(1):130–133. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2567.1996.d01-642.x

Late-term fetal thymectomy does not prevent the development of gut-homing T cells after birth.

R N Cahill 1, W G Kimpton 1, E A Washington 1, L Dudler 1, Z Trnka 1
PMCID: PMC1456470  PMID: 8707339

Abstract

Tissue-specific circulation of T cells is a critical element in the integration of systemic immune responses. Current models of T-cell migration suggest that homing specificities of T cells for tissues such as gut and skin are generated outside the thymus as a result of activation of virgin T cells by antigen in lymph nodes. We have used the sheep fetus (which is immunologically virgin and contains no memory or effector T-cell subsets) to examine the migration of 51Cr-labelled T cells in vivo. We report that gut-homing T cells are not present in the fetus and that gut-homing T cells from postnatal lambs home normally to fetal gut. Fetal thymectomy performed immediately prior to birth failed to prevent the development of gut-homing T cells in postnatal life. Gut-homing specificities on T cells are thus acquired extrathymically.

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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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