Abstract
It is widely accepted that the thymic microenvironment regulates normal thymopoiesis
through a highly coordinated and complex series of cellular and cytokine interactions. A direct
corollary of this is that abnormalities within the microenvironment could be of etiologic
significance in T-cell-based diseases. Our laboratory has developed a large panel of
monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that react specifically with epithelial or nonepithelial
markers in the thymus. We have taken advantage of these reagents to characterize the
thymic microenvironment of several genetic strains of mice, including BALB/cJ,
C57BL/6J, NZB/BlnJ, SM/J, NOD/Ltz, NOD/Ltz-scid/sz, C57BL/6J-Hcph