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Laboratory study investigates how rat skin cells affect thymocyte activity, suggesting different cell types have varied effects.
Rat skin cells prepared according to the procedure of Main et al. (1971. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 68: 1165) were found to produce a definite stimulation of allogeneic thymocytes as measured by tritiated thymidine incorporation into cellular DNA. However, cell suspensions prepared from rat tails by the method of Billingham and Medawar (1951. J. Exp. Biol. 28: 385) and consisting almost exclusively of epidermal cells were found to be incapable of stimulating allogeneic rat thymocytes when used in the same concentrations. Allogeneic brain cells, kidney cells, and thyroid cells were found to be consistently incapable of inducing a blastogenic response in the thymocyte component of the mixtures. A small proliferative effect was observed in cultures containing syngeneic thymocytes and skin cells. This effect was shown to be partially attributable to improved survival of the thymocytes. No significant syngeneic effect was found in mixed cultures of thymocytes and syngeneic kidney, brain, or thyroid cells.
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LANE et al. (1973) studied this question.
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