Blood, 1960, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 1133-1144.
© 1960 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
Morphologic and Autoradiographic Observations
of H3-Thymidine-Labeled Thoracic Duct
Lymphocytes Cultured in Vivo
JOHN C. SCHOOLEY 1 and
IRWIN BERMAN 1
1 Donner Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, and the Department
of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, San Francisco, Calif.
1. The behavior of mouse and rat thoracic duct lymphocytes cultivated in
diffusion chambers implanted into the peritoneal cavity of recipient mice
and rats has been described.
2. The temporal pattern of labeling of cultured thoracic duct lymphocytes
labeled with H3-thymidine has been described. From an analysis of this
pattern and the changes in the mean grain count of the different classes of
lymphocytes a maximum generation time for large and medium lymphocytes
of 15 and 24 hours has been calculated. The results of these experiments favor
an origin of small lymphocytes from the division of large and medium
lymphocytes.
3. Some evidence for the transformation of thoracic duct lymph cells into
monocytoid cells was found. In homologous cultures of labeled thoracic duct
lymph cells and unlabeled bone marrow apparent evidence for transformation
of labeled cells into plasma cells was found. The data suggest that neither
the monocytoid cells nor the plasma cells arose necessarily from small lymphocytes. It was concluded that some unidentified cells, presumably the largest
cells which are normally present in thoracic duct lymph, can be transformed
into these other cell types when appropriately stimulated.
Submitted on November 4, 1959
Accepted on February 10, 1960
