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THE INFLUENCE OF DIETARY PROTEIN INSUFFICIENCY ON THE MURINE THYMUS. EVIDENCE FOR AN INTRATHYMIC POOL OF PROGENITOR CELLS CAPABLE OF THYMUS REGENERATION AFTER SEVERE ATROPHY
Author(s) -
Bell RG,
Hazell Lee A
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
australian journal of experimental biology and medical science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0004-945X
DOI - 10.1038/icb.1977.56
Subject(s) - biology , population , endocrinology , progenitor cell , regeneration (biology) , medicine , suppressor , bone marrow , atrophy , stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , biochemistry , environmental health , gene , genetics
Summary Low protein diets initiated at weaning in Balb/c mice cause a rapid and profound reduction in thymus weight and cellularity. Thymus weight falls to less than that of the involuted thymus of adult mice and remains depressed for as long as diets are fed. Although most peripheral T cell functions do not appear to be depressed, suppressor cell activity was not as vigorous in deprived animals despite the presence of functional suppressor populations. Thymus growth was reinitiated promptly when high protein diets were fed to deprived animals. Thymus regeneration appeared to he due to both a resident population of stem cells which persisted in the thymus through the period of deprivation and a second, probably bone‐marrow derived, population of stem cells. It is suggested that in normal mice the synchronized growth of the first population produces the characteristic innate growth pattern of the thymus. This is superimposed on the growth of the second population which continuously seeds the thymus and is constantly replaced. Protein deprivation severely restricts the growth of the first and second population, but both maintain their capacity for growth during long periods of protein restriction.