ER-MP12 antigen, a new cell surface marker on mouse bone marrow cells with thymus-repopulating ability: II. Thymus-homing ability and phenotypic characterization of ER-MP12-positive bone marrow cells

Abstract

In the accompanying paper we showed that six distinct subsets of bone marrow (BM) cells can be identified using the mAb ER-MP12 and ER-MP20 in two-colour immunofluorescence analysis. Upon intrathymic transfer into sublethally irradiated mice thymus-repopulating ability was restricted to ER-MP20- BM cells expressing either high or intermediate levels of the ER-MP12 antigen (1-2% and -30% of BM nucleated cells respectively). The highest frequency of thymus-repopulating cells was found in the minor subset of ER-MP12++20- BM cells. In the present study we demonstrate that upon intravenous transfer, thymus-homing and-repopulating BM cells are exclusively confined to the ER-MP12++20- and ER-MP12+2..