Figure 5.

Effect of adrenalectomy on cellularity and the dose-response curve of GC-induced apoptosis. A: At the age of 5 weeks, wild-type and transgenic rats were bilaterally adrenalectomized (ADX). Fourteen days later serum corticosterone levels and the cellularity of the thymus and lymph nodes were determined. As a control, rats were sham-operated (con). B: Two weeks after surgery thymocytes and lymph node cells were recovered from adrenalectomized wild-type and transgenic rats. The cells were cultured for 24 hours in charcoal-treated medium in the presence of dexamethasone and the survival determined by flow cytometry using Annexin V in combination with monoclonal antibodies against CD4, CD8α, and TCRβ (N = 12).