HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Nagaya, H. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Nagaya, H.

Thymus Function in Spontaneous Lymphoid Leukemia

I. Premature Leukemogenesis in "young" Thymectomized Mice Bearing "old" Thymus Grafts¹

From the Division of Allergy and Pulmonary Diseases, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Abstract

More than 90% of AKR mice died of spontaneous lymphoid leukemia before the age of 12 months. However, the mice did not develop leukemia until the age of 6 months suggesting that a latent period or aging was necessary for the development of leukemia. Moreover, the incidence of leukemia was reduced to nil when the mice were thymectomized before the age of 6 months.

For studying the thymic influence on leukemogenesis, 1- or 5- to 6-month-old AKR mice were thymectomized and received syngeneic 5- to 6- or 1-month-old thymus grafts. When 1-month-old mice were thymectomized and grafted with thymus glands from 5- to 6-month-old mice, 13 of 21 (62%) died of leukemia before the recipient mice reached the age of 6 months. Only 3 of 17 control mice thymectomized at the age of 1 month and grafted with 5- to 6-month-old spleens died of leukemia. When 5- to 6-month-old mice were thymectomized and grafted with thymus glands from 1-month-old mice, none of 19 mice developed leukemia for at least 5 months or until the recipient mice were 11 months old. The latent period for leukemogenesis appears to be required by the reticular epithelial cells of the thymus grafts rather than by the lymphoid cells of host origin migrating from bone marrow to thymus.

Footnotes

¹ This study was supported by American Cancer Society Grant ET-54.