Figure 13.

The expression levels of surface proteins in Aire wild-type or Aire-deficient mTECs cocultured with wild-type CD8⁺ or CD4⁺ thymocytes. CD326 (EPCAM) expression increased when mTECs were cocultured with CD4⁺ cells and decreased when mTECs were cocultured with CD8⁺ thymocytes (A, B). The percentage of double-positive CD80⁺/MHC-II⁺ mTECs increased when they adhered to CD4⁺ cells and decreased when they adhered to CD8⁺ thymocytes (C, D). Data are presented as mean ± s.d. (replicates n = 3). The differences were evaluated using Student t test (p values are indicated for each comparison when pertinent). (*), (**), (***) = statistical significance.