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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Apr 3.
Published in final edited form as: Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2009 Feb 13;381(2):229–235. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2009.02.029

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Schematic representation of the proposed role of activins and inhibins during thymocyte development. Activin A and inhibin A promote the transition from DN3 to DN4, potentially antagonizing the previously reported effects of BMPs at this developmental checkpoint. Inhibin A promotes the transition to the DP stage while activin A induces the accumulation of an ISP subpopulation. At later stages of development, both activin A and inhibin A promote thymocyte maturation, favouring the differentiation of CD8SP mature thymocytes. During early fetal stages, the absence of inhibins delays the DN2-DN3 and DN-DP transitions and also reduces the total number of thymocytes.