CHARACTERIZATION OF THE AKR THYMIC MICROENVIRONMENT AND ITS INFLUENCEON THYMOCYTE DIFFERENTIATION AND LYMPHOMA DEVELOPMENT

The thymic stroma has long been implicated in AKR thymic leukaemia. In this study an extensive panel of monoclonal antibodies was used to in vestigate changes in the AKR thymic microenvironment, in parallel with thymocyte differentiation of normal (2 month), preleukaemic (5-7 mont h) and leukaemic (>7 month) mice. We found select alterations in the t hymic stroma, including a loss of isolated medullary antigens and chan ges in MTS 32, a mAb detecting an antigen on both thymocytes and strom a in the thymic cortex. Stromal alterations were accompanied by shifts in thymocyte differentiation and the appearance of the leukaemogenic mink cell focus-forming (MCF) murine leukaemia virus. Copyright (C) El sevier Science Ltd