Thymus-recruited peritoneal exudate T lymphocytes.

The role of the thymus in the generation of antigen-reactive peritoneal exudate T lymphocytes (PETLs) was examined in mice injected with Corynebacterium parvum (C. parvum), which exerted functions as a trigger of T cell recruitment from the thymus and as an antigen to induce antigen-reactive T cells. The proliferative response of antigen-reactive PETLs was higher in sham mice than in adult-thymectomized (ATx) mice 3 weeks after injection of C. parvum. When indomethacin (INDO) was injected simultaneously with an injection of proteose peptone for collecting PETLs, the response to C. parvum decreased to an undetectable level in ATx mice, and to a low but still positive level in sham mice. The addition of PGE2 to the culture suppressed the proliferative response of PETLs from Sham mice, but did not suppress the response of ATx mice. These results suggested the existence of different subsets in antigen-reactive T cells in terms of thymus-dependency and PGE2-dependency or -sensitivity.