T cell ontogeny. Organ location of maturing populations as defined by surface antigen markers is similar in neonates and adults.

Earlier studies have suggested that splenic T cell populations in nursling mice (less than 18 d of age) have Lyt cell surface antigens that identify them as less mature than their adult counterparts. Studies presented here, however, demonstrate that the expression of the Thy-1, Lyt-1, Lyt-2, and Lyt-3 T cell antigens is virtually identical in 14-d-old and adult T cell populations even though at 14 d, T cells constitute less than 10% of the total spleen cell population. Because the expression of these antigens on the immature (cortical) thymocyte population differs substantially from their expression on peripheral T cells, the maturity of splenic T cells as judged by these criteria is similar in nurslings and adults. Very few cells in the neonatal thymus 4 h after birth correspond, in terms of antigen expression, to the more mature (medullary) thymocyte population of adults, but such cells develop rapidly during the first few days of life. They are present, therefore, sufficiently early to serve as the immediate source of peripheral T cells, as they apparently do in the adult. This then suggests that the locations for the major T cell maturational events are established within the first 2 wk of life of the mouse and maintained as such thereafter. The use of monoclonal antibodies and quantitative immunofluorescence analysis in our studies probably explains the differences between our findings and those reported previously, which relied on cytotoxic depletion by alloantisera and complement to estimate the frequencies of cells carrying the Lyt differentiation antigens in nurslings.