Inhibins Tune the Thymocyte Selection Process by Regulating Thymic Stromal Cell Differentiation

Figure 4

Inhα^−/− mice show reduced numbers of thymic cTECs and express lower levels of MHCII. (a) The gating scheme to identify thymic epithelial cells is shown. From the CD45-gated subpopulation, Ly51 and MHCII markers are used to identify cortical (Ly51⁺ MHCII⁺) and medullary (Ly51⁻ MHCII⁺) epithelial cells. Among TEC subpopulations, both cortical and medullary, MHCII expression is used to distinguish immature (MHCI) and mature TECs (MHCI). Cortical and medullary epithelial cells subsets could be distinguished as Ly51⁺ MHCI and Ly51⁻ MHCI, respectively (a). Dot blot that shows one representative experiment of a total of 9 (Inhα^+/+, ; Inhα^−/−, ) mice is shown. (b) The percentage and absolute numbers of total cTECs and mTECs are shown. A significant increase in the percentage of mTECs and a decrease in the percentage of cTECs in Inhα^−/− compared to Inhα^+/+ mice. (c) A slight decrease in the percentage of cTEC () and cTEC () and a significant increase in the percentage of were detected in Inhα^−/− compared to Inhα^+/+ mice. For this analysis, Inhα^+/+, and Inhα^−/−, were used. Statistical significance: .