Thymic Control Mechanism in Ovarian Development: Reconstitution of Ovarian Dysgenesis in Thymectomized Mice by Replacement with Thymic and Other Lymphoid Tissues

Abstract

The effects of grafting and cell injection of various lymphoid tissues on prevention of the ovarian dysgenesis developing in the mice thymectomized at 3 days of age were studied. The following was effective for prevention of the occurrence of ovarian dysgenesis: (1) grafting of thymuses from newborn and adult mice within 14 days after birth, (2 grafting of adult spleen at 7 days of age, (3) intraperitoneal (i_p) injection of dissociated thymus cells from syngeneic 7- day-old and adult mice at 7-20 days of age, (4) i_p injection of dissociated spleen and lymph node cells from intact adult mice at 7-20 days of age. No differences between female and male mice could be found in the abilities of their lymphoid cells to restore arrested ovarian development. In contrast, the following was not capable of preventing ovarian dysgenesis: (1) grafting of allogeneic thymus and syngeneic newborn spleen, (2) i_p injection of syngeneic bone marrow cells, and spleen cells either from 7-day-old intact donors or from adult donors thymectomized at 3-5 days of age, (3) i_p injection of allogeneic spleen cells. However, spleen cells from H-2 compatible donors were capable of preventing ovarian dysgenesis. (Endocrinology90: 431, 1972)