SHIVERS at AARLO.MOFFITT.USF.EDU ("Steven Shivers, Ph.D.") wrote:
>
>... suggested that there are probably extra-thymic locations of T cell
> maturation in adults. If this is true, then there should be pockets
> of CD3+CD4+CD8+ "thymocytes" present in adult thymuses as well as in
> extra-thymic lymphoid tissues. Has anyone shown this experimentally
> in humans?
Yes, there are such thymocytes around in trace quatities in the adult thymus,
but I am not aware of any study on the periphery. Is it possible that only small
quanitities of these populations could be the reservoir for memory CTLs?
I think so. The B cell side of things provides an excellent model that may
be applicable for CD3+ cells as well.
Christopher Savoie
Department of Genetics
Medical Institute of Bioregulation
Kyushu University
