Ontogeny of rat thymic dendritic cells.

In the present study we have combined various in vivo and in vitro approaches to analyse the appearance and development throughout ontogeny and postnatal life of the dendritic cell (DC) populations of rat thymus. The in situ ultrastructural study demonstrated immature interdigitating cells (IDC)/DC in the thymus of 17-day-old embryonic rats, but thymic stromal cell cultures from 16-day-old fetal rats seemed to contain DC precursors which, after several days in culture, produced strongly class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-positive, mature DC. According to morphology and class II MHC expression we also defined three different DC populations in the late embryonic rat thymus; two of them, which remained in the adult rat thymus, could represent distinct developmental stages within the IDC/DC lineage. The third cell subset might be involved in a massive process of negative selection, presumably occurring at the end of fetal life in the rat thymus. In supporting the existence of thymic DC subpopulations, we also demonstrated a differential expression of various cell markers, including CD4, CD8, CD25, adhesion molecules and the antigen recognized by OX44 monoclonal antibody (mAb), on thymic DC during both embryonic and adult life. Their possible significance for the attributed functions to thymic DC are discussed extensively.