In vivo homing of thymus-enriched bone marrow cells

A population of adult CBA/J mouse bone marrow (BM) cells enriched by in vitro migration to supernatant prepared from neonatal thymus was labeled with a DNA-binding fluorochrome, Hoechst dye No. 33342 (H33342). Labeled cells were injected into irradiated recipients in order to compare the in vivo localization of the migration-enriched BM (MEBM) cells to the localization of injected nonenriched BM (NEBM) cell controls. A characteristic difference in the distribution of localized cells was observed in the spleen but not in other lymphoid organs. At 2 hr after injection the MEBM cells were located in the marginal zones surrounding the periarterial lymphoid sheaths (PALS) of the splenic white pulp. At 6 hr after injection the MEBM cells were seen distributed between marginal zones and the PALS and by 16 hr they had localized almost exclusively in the white pulp. In contrast, the NEBM cells were located in the marginal zones or red pulp for the duration of the experiment. These observations show that the MEBM cells home selectively to T-cell areas of the spleen. Direct immunofluorescent monoclonal antibody staining of H33342-labeled cells obtained from the recipient spleens at 16 hr demonstrated that the MEBM cells were negative for Thy-1 antigen, indicating that acquisition of Thy-1 was not prerequisite to the observed homing. The results are compared to known localization patterns of mature lymphocytes.