RNA-Seq-Based Gene Expression Pattern and Morphological Alterations in Chick Thymus during Postnatal Development

Figure 1

The changes of the thymus weight, index, and morphology during postnatal development. (a) The thymus weight kept increasing until the 18^th week and then decreased. (b) The thymus index continued to decline. (c) Sections of thymuses were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining to analyze changes of the tissue structure. Light areas represent the medulla, and dark areas represent the cortex. The cortex was thick, and the boundary between the cortex and medulla was clear at the 0 week. With the increase in age, the cortex became thinner and the boundary blurred at the 5^th week and was hardly distinguishable at the 27^th week. In addition, many round-shaped bubbles were formed due to the dissolved adipose tissue, which appeared at the 5^th week and kept increasing with the advancement of age. Scale bars = 200 μm. All the data are presented as . , .

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