1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
When will functional thymic-gonadal axis be established ?
| Project/Area Number |
03807002
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
General anatomy (including Histology/Embryology)
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| Research Institution | Tokai University |
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Principal Investigator |
SEIKI Kanji Tokai University, Department of Morphology, professor, 医学部, 教授 (40055934)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SAKABE Kou Tokai University, Department of Morphology, assistant professor, 医学部, 講師 (70162302)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1991 – 1993
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| Keywords | human fetal thymus / estrogen receptor / serum thymic factor / thymic epithelial cell / Hassall body / thymus-gonad axis |
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| Research Abstract |
This study was carried out to determine when functional 'thymusgonad' axis would be established using human fetal thymus. Thymus tissues regally obtained from 13 to 24 week old fetuses were used for (1) immunohistochemical staining of estrogen receptor (ER), serum thymic factor (FTS) and keratin, and (2) quantitation by ELISA of ER and FTS in the tissue.
The findings were as follows ; (1) in 16 week old fetal thymus ER-stained cells appeared exclusively in the medullary area which were confirmed as epithelial cells by keratin-staining. They were also scattered in the cortical area. (2) at the same gestational week, predominantly FTS-stained cells were diffusely distributed throughout the medulla, with some scattered in the cortical area. Their structural features were similar to those of ER-stained cells.
The present results may provide evidence for E regulation of development-growth of the fetal thymus at mid-pregnancy through its effect on the epithelial cells via a receptor mechanism that produces FTS to stimulate the proliferation, differentiation and/or selection of T cells.
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