Development of the Avian Immune System

Abstract

The avian embryo provides several advantages for studies on development of the immune system. These include the existence of a clear demarcation between the B and T cell systems, with each population differentiating in a specialized primary lymphoid organ-T cells in the thymus and B cells in the bursa of Fabricius. In addition, there is an availability of large numbers of embryos at precise stages of development. Because of its importance to the poultry industry, much research on the avian system has used the domestic chicken; this has been helped by the ready availability of different congenic and inbred lines, genetic markers and monoclonal antibodies (mAb)-the essential tools for studying the development of the immune system. The quail-chick chimeras have also proved to be an especially informative model, particularly for studying the emergence of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and their migration to the primary lymphoid organs during embryogenesis. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.