A. Antonica et al., LYMPHOCYTE TRAFFIC CHANGES INDUCED BY MONOLATERAL VAGAL DENERVATION IN MOUSE THYMUS AND PERIPHERAL LYMPHOID ORGANS, Journal of neuroimmunology, 64(2), 1996, pp. 115-122
In this report we show that after monolateral vagal denervation (vagot
omy), performed at the cervical level, a transient effect, lasting abo
ut 24 h, was produced on lymphocyte release from mouse thymus to perip
heral lymphoid organs (spleen and lymph nodes). Labelling thymocytes i
n situ with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) we note that the export
of immature cells, CD4(+)CD8(+), double positive (DP), and double nega
tive, CD4(-)CD8(-) (DN), from the thymus was consistently increased 24
and 48 h after vagotomy. Double staining with anti-L3T4 (CD4) and ant
i-mouse CD8 alpha showed that the number of DP and DN cells was signif
icantly higher in both spleen and lymph nodes of vagotomized mice comp
ared to controls (sham-operated), whereas the percentage of CD4(+)CD8(
-) and CD8(+)CD4(-), single positives (SP), was decreased, Considering
thymic cellularity and apoptotic values, we exclude the non-specific
effect of stress and suggest that this phenomenon could be in part due
to a transient lack of the facilitating influence exerted by vagal ef
ferent fibers on lymphocyte traffic at the cortico-medullary junction
of the thymic gland, where mature cells, SP, leave the thymus to enter
systemic circulation.