Abstract
Thymus colonization during embryogenesis starts with the accumulation of basophilic cells in the jugular vein, in capillaries and in the mesenchyme surrounding the thymus. In birds the extrinsic origin of these basophilic cells, which are considered to be hematopoietic precursors, was established by the construction of quail-chick chimaeras (Le Douarin 1978; Le Douarin and Jotereau 1980). Using this technique the group of Le Douarin demonstrated that the thymus of birds is colonized mainly in three waves during embryogenesis and the first few days following hatching (Jotereau and Le Douarin 1982; Coltey et al. 1987). In mice, the thymus is colonized by hematopoietic precursors at days 10 and 13 of embryogenesis (Jotereau et al. 1987). A similar process, albeit at a lower level, may occur throughout life (Scollay et al. 1986; Donskoy and Goldschneider 1992). The major cellular events of thymus homing are illustrated in Fig. 1.
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Dunon, D., Ruiz, P., Imhof, B.A. (1993). Pro-T Cell Homing to the Thymus. In: Dunon, D., Mackay, C.R., Imhof, B.A. (eds) Adhesion in Leukocyte Homing and Differentiation. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 184. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78253-4_11
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