Characterization of thymus-seeding precursor cells from mouse bone marrow

The nature of the cells that seed the thymus of an irradiated recipient after intravenous (IV) transfer of bone marrow (BM) cells was investigated using 2 approaches. First, direct entry of a small number of donor BM cells into the thymus was tracked using a Ly-5 marker. Second, secondary IV transfer of the seeded thymus cells into a secondary recipient was used as an assay for precursor activity. A range of cell types was found to enter the recipient thymus initially, including B-lineage cells and myeloid cells, but T precursors were undetectable by flow cytometry over the first few days. Although all cells initially entering the thymus proliferated, no sustained thymus reconstitution was seen until day 4, when recognizable T-lineage precursors began to appear. The secondary transfer assays revealed the presence of lymphoid precursors in the recipient thymus, including T, NKT, NK, and B precursor activity, with a notable early burst of B-lineage generative capacity. There was no evidence of sustained myeloid precursor or multipotent stem cell activity, even though these were seen if BM cells were injected directly into the recipient thymus rather than introduced into the bloodstream. It is concluded that even though many cell types may initially enter an irradiated thymus, the thymus acts as a sieve, allowing lymphoid precursors, but not multipotent stem cells, to seed the environmental niches that permit selected precursor cell development and thymus reconstitution. (Blood. 2001;98:696-704)