The in vitro production of chimeric murine thymus from nonlymphoid embryonic precursors.

A simplified technique for the production of chimeric thymus completely in vitro from the third pharyngeal pouch (TPP) of 10-day mouse embryos has been examined. The results are similar to those obtained by a more cumbersome technique published by others. This modified technique permits the production of large numbers of synchronized chimeric thymuses, so that sufficient numbers of thymocytes are available for multiple functional assays. TPP may also be maintained in culture, then grafted into normal or thymectomized, irradiated, fetal liver-reconstituted hosts where they undergo development into histologically normal lymphoid thymic tissue.