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

Table 1

Relative intracellular expression of Activin A in thymic cDCs and thymic epithelial cell subpopulations from Inhα^+/+ and Inhα^−/− mice.

Stromal cell	Genotype		Activin
		D	ND	Relative intracellular expression ± SEM
cDC	Inhα^+/+	4	1	1.093 ± 0.0445
	Inhα^−/−	3	3	1.484 ± 0.1429^*
Total cTECs	Inhα^+/+	3	2	1.311 ± 0.1426
	Inhα^−/−	4	2	1.518 ± 0.1545
cTECs MHCII^hi	Inhα^+/+	3	2	1.485 ± 0.2758
	Inhα^−/−	4	2	1.650 ± 0.2196
cTECs MHCII^lo	Inhα^+/+	2	3	1.235 ± 0.0212
	Inhα^−/−	3	3	1.400 ± 0.1623
Total mTECs	Inhα^+/+	3	2	1.534 ± 0.2736
	Inhα^−/−	4	2	1.544 ± 0.1593
mTECs MHCII^hi	Inhα^+/+	4	1	1.491 ± 0.2969
	Inhα^−/−	4	2	1.649 ± 0.3075
mTECs MHCII^lo	Inhα^+/+	3	2	1.379 ± 0.1593
	Inhα^−/−	4	2	1.452 ± 0.1330

Intracellular levels of Activin were measured by flow cytometry, using surface markers to differentiate different stromal cell subpopulations: cDCs (CD45⁺ CD11c⁺ MHCII⁺); cTECs (CD45⁻ MHCII⁺ Ly51⁺); mTECs (CD45⁻ MHCII⁺ Ly51⁻). MHCII high and low subpopulations were also analyzed to define mature versus immature subpopulations, respectively. Relative intracellular expression of Activin A was calculated normalizing the MFI from each sample to the MFI of the secondary antibody control from mice in column D. D: number of mice with detectable Activin levels; ND: not detectable. Statistical significance: .