Mouse Anti-Chicken CD8a-PE/CY5

alpha chain (34-kDa) of chicken CD8<br>In the chicken, the CD8 molecule is present in two forms: (i) a homodimer of two alpha chains, and (ii) a heterodimer of an alpha chain and a beta chain.1 While the vast majority of CD8+ cells in the thymus, spleen, and blood of adult chickens express both CD8alpha- and CD8beta-chains, a relatively large proportion of the CD8+ TCR-gammadelta cells in the spleens of embryos and young chicks express only the alpha-chain of CD8. Among intestinal epithelial lymphocytes, the major CD8+ T cell populations present in mice are conserved, but there is a population of TCR-gammadelta CD8alphabeta cells in the chicken that is not found in rodents.1,3 Chicken CD8 is expressed on approximately 80% of thymocytes, 15% of blood mononuclear cells and 50% of spleen cells, but <1% of cells in the bursa and bone marrow.1,2 MAb CT-8 recognizes the CD8alpha chain.1