The influence of cell adhesiveness on the migratory behavior of murine thymocytes.

When suspensions of thymocytes from CBA mice were fractionated using a nylon wool filtration technique, cells from the subpopulation obtained in the eluate were found to be more adhesive to each other than control cells which had not been filtered. This more mutually adhesive subpopulation also displayed a different migratory pattern from control cells, with fewer cells entering all the major organs studied (except the small intestine, blood, and kidneys) during the first 4 hr after infusion. The altered migratory pattern was found to be time-dependent, and (except in the kidneys) the organ distribution of cells from the subpopulation returned to the control situation within 24 hr. We conclude that the nylon wool filtration technique selectively removes a thymocyte subpopulation of rather lower self-adhesiveness and suggest that caution is necessary when extrapolating from data in which the experimental cells were prepared using this technique. We further suggest that transitory changes in adhesiveness may be responsible for cells leaving one organ and migrating to another.