[Analysis of chemokine (S) produced by mouse thymic stromal cell lines]

By using Boyden Chamber and PACS methods, we analysed the chemotactic activity of five mouse thymic stromal cell (MTSC) lines' culture supernatant for neutrophil, monocyte/macrophage and lymphocyte, and the phenotype of the attracted lymphocyes, MTEC 1, MTEC 2, MTEC 3, MTEC 5 are mouse thymus epithelial cell lines. MTDC 4 is a mouse thymus dendritic cell line. The results indicate that all of the five MTSC supernatants have chemotactic activity for the target cells mentioned above but in different degree. Chemokines produced by the MTSC cells can be classified into three categories: (1) Chemokines produced by MTEC 1 and MTEC 2 are more potent for the attraction of neutrophils and lymphocytes. (2) MTDC 4 derived chemokines are highly potent for the attraction of monocytes/macrophages. (3) Chemokines produced by MTEC 3 and MTEC 5 are equally attractive to neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes/macrophages. Most of the MTSC-SN are more potent for the migration of B lymphocyte than for T lymphocyte. The MTSC-SN exhibits higher chemotactic activity to CD4-CD8+ T cell subset than to CD4+CD8-T cell subset. The characterization of chemokines in MTSC-SN will benefit the finding of new chemokines and the analysis of the mechanism of thymus homing.