Abstract
The ability of the lymphocytes of the blood stream to develop into either myeloid or phagocytic cells is denied by most investigators. In a long series of experiments Maximow 1 showed that the lymphocytes and monocytes of the blood wander into the tissues in inflammation and transform there in a very short time into exudate mononuclear cells or polyblasts, as he called them. A portion of the latter he also derived from his resting wandering cells or histiocytes. These, as he showed, have a close embryogenetic relationship to the lymphocytes.
Several investigators have studied the development of lymphocytes and lymphoid tissue in tissue culture. Their results have not been uniform or decisive because it was very difficult to follow the fate of the various kinds of cells present in the explanted tissues.
At the suggestion, and with the aid of Dr. A. Maximow, I cultivated the lymph of the thoracic duct of the rabbit. This fluid in the rabbit contains only lymphocytes, or at most an occasional monocyte. (Simpson, 2 Thorne and Evans, 3 Kindwall. 4 ) Lymph was pipetted aseptically from the cervical portion of the thoracic duct of adult rabbits (anesthetized with ether) which had been starved for 24 hours. The lymph was allowed to clot; it was then minced in Ringers solution and explanted in heparin plasma with various tissue extracts and tissues. This report gives the results obtained in cultivating lymph with embryonic extract.
Except for a few scattered monocytoid cells and erythrocytes, the lymph used in these experiments, as seen in spravital, dry and wet smears, contained only lymphocytes.
After the cultures were studied in the living condition, both with and without supravital staining with neutral red, they were fixed in Zenker-formol, imbedded in celloidin, cut in serial sections, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin-azure II.
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