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From the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, and the Departments of Medical Microbiology and Medicine, University of Turku, 20520 Turku, Finland
Abstract
Lymphoid cells from bursa of Fabricius, bone marrow, thymus and spleen of 3 
- to 16-week-old donors were used to study the reconstitution of the bursadependent lymphoid system in cyclophosphamide-treated chickens. Parameters used to assess the development of humoral immunity and other effects of transplanted cells were: production of natural and immune antibodies, plasma immunoglobulin levels, microscopic morphology of spleen and bursa, gain of body weight and survival pattern. Bursa cells from young donors, 3 to 10 weeks of age, were capable of a functional restoration. Bone marrow cells had the same restorative capacity only when obtained from donors of older age, starting at 10 weeks. At the age of 14 weeks, the spleen, and also the thymus cells to a more limited extent, had the same capacity. Functional restoration of humoral immunity was paralleled by a normalization of the microscopic structure of the spleen but restoration of the bursal morphology was not achieved with any of the cell types used.
These findings suggest that the postembryonic stem cell responsible for humoral immunity emigrates from bursa to bone marrow at the time of bursal involution. Subsequently, a cell with the same reconstituting capacities appears in spleen, and to some extent also in thymus.
Footnotes
1 This work was aided by grants from the National Foundation of the March of Dimes, United States Public Health Service Grants AI-08677, AI-00798, NS-02042, the American Heart Association and the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation. Requests for reprints should be sent to Paavo Toivanen, Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Turku, 20520 Turku, Finland.
2 Supported by United States Public Health Service International Research Fellowship 5-F05-TW-1550.
3 Supported by American Association of University Women International Ida H. Hyde Fellowship and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation.
4 Supported by United States Public Health Service International Research Fellowship F05-TW-1461. Present address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Temple University Health Sciences Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19140.
5 American Legion Memorial Research Professor, Regent's Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Pathology, University of Minnesota.
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