European Journal of Histochemistry 2013; volume 57:e17 Immunoreactivity for thymosin Introduction Correspondence: Sonia Nemolato, Istituto di beta 4 and thymosin beta 10 Anatomia Patologica, Dipartimento di Scienze in the adult rat oro-gastro- Beta thymosins are a versatile family of Chirurgiche, PO S. Giovanni di Dio, Università di intestinal tract small peptides expressed in multiple tissues in Cagliari, via Università 60, 09124 Cagliari, Italy. mammals, that show many intracellular and Tel. +39.070.6092370 - Fax: +39.070.657882. extracellular activities.1,2 These peptides are E-mail:
[email protected] S. Nemolato,1 J. Ekstrom,2 T. Cabras,3 named thymosins after their first isolation in C. Gerosa,1 D. Fanni,1 E. Di Felice,1 Key words: rats, thymosin beta 4, thymosin beta the calf thymus.3 Fifteen highly homologous 1 3 4 10, immunohistochemistry, gastrointestinal tract. A. Locci, I. Messana, M. Castagnola, beta thymosin variants, containing 40 to 44 G. Faa1 4 amino acid residues, have been described. Contributions: SN, GF, research design and man- 1Istituto di Anatomia Patologica, Among beta thymosins, thymosin beta 4 uscript writing; JE, CM, IM, critical review; TC, 5,6 7 Dipartimento di Scienze Chirurgiche, PO (Tβ4) and thymosin beta 10 (Tβ10) are the CG, DF, EDF, AL, data analysis and research per- 8 forming. S. Giovanni di Dio, Università di Cagliari, most abundant in human cells and rat tissues. During the years, beta thymosins have been Italy; 2Division of Pharmacology, Institute detected inside of cells of different organs,9-14 Conflict of interests: the authors declare no con- of Neuroscience and Physiology, as well as in human blood,15 in human saliva,16 flict of interests.