Abstract
Summary
Lymphocytes located within the gut-epithelium of mammals, here called theliolymphocytes, are interesting but hitherto rather neglected. The kinetics of the theliolymphocytes suggests that they do not leave the organism together with the epithelial cells and that they may be part of a diffuse “primary lymphoid organ” comparable to the bursa Fabricii of birds. In this study it is shown that theliolymphocytes appear relatively late; there are as few as 0.5% in 2-week-old mice. A tenfold increase of theliolymphocytes occurs during the third week of life which might be correlated with immune responses which also appear at this time. Neonatal thymectomy causes a decrease of the number of theliolymphocytes in parallel with a decrease of the total number of blood lymphocytes. The latter finding, however, could be a consequence of wasting disease.
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