The early development of the thymus glands in amia calva

Abstract

Abstract Three pairs of thymus primordia are found at 6 to 6.5 mm. on the dorsal lateral ends of the second, third and fourth visceral pouches. Those on each side after fusing by growth and migratin come to lie above the third visceral pouch, whence the thymus migrates upward and backward; growing in size, it stretches above the ends of all the gill pouches. It pushes inward into the mesenchyme at 12 to 13 mm. and becomes perforated and surrounded by blood vessels and connective tissue which separate it almost completely from the epithelium. No septa are found; occasionally the third primordium fails to fuse and forms a separate lobe. The early thymus is a syncytium in which are found lymphoblasts, identified by structure of the cytosome and its behavior during mitosis. Evidence is presented that lymphoblasts migrate into the thymus where they increase in number with corresponding increase in length of cytoplasmic bridges and size of intercellular spaces. At 10 mm. begins a rapid increase in size of the thymus and in number of lymphoblasts and decrease in size of the latter, culminating at 12 to 13 mm. in their transformation into thymocytes. A medulla associated with blood vessels is unmistakable at 30 mm.