Ontogeny and peripheralization of thymic lymphocytes.

Reciprocal transplantation of undifferentiated thymic primordia between diploid and triploid chromosomally marked frog embryos has revealed that thymic lymphocytes are ontogenically derived from elements of the thymic primordium rather than from blood-borne stem cells that migrated into the developing organ. Virtually all the lymphocytes in the spleen, kidneys, and bone marrow of adult frogs are descendants of these original thymic stem lymphocytes.