CS21 lymphoma cells that preferentially metastasize to lymph nodes after s.c. inoculation into BALB/c mice were grown in vitro in the presence of CA12 stromal cells isolated from lymph nodes. To obtain fundamental data on identification and characterization of the soluble factor(s) produced by CA12 stromal cells, we investigated the biological profile of the conditioned medium produced by CAl2 stromal cells. CAl2 conditioned medium has no affinity with Con A. CAl2 conditioned medium is associated with the proliferation of splenic T- and thymic T-cells with-out adding mitogen, although the conditioned medium cannot induce the differentiation of thymocytes. Additionally, we showed that H-7, not HA-1004 inhibits CS21 cell proliferation. These results suggest that CAl2 conditioned medium has a specific soluble factor(s) produced by lymph node stromal cells.