Figure 7.

DCs and T reg cells in the thymus of Aire-deficient mice. (A) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of Xcl1, Ccl19, Ccl21, and Ccl25 expression in sorted CD45⁻EpCAM⁺UEA1⁺ mTECs from WT and Aire-deficient mice. The amounts of the transcripts were normalized to the amount of housekeeping Hprt, and those in WT mTECs were arbitrarily set to 1. Bar graphs show means and standard errors of at least three independent measurements. (B) Immunofluorescence analysis of thymus sections for CD11c (green) and mTECs (ER-TR5; red). Representative images from two independent experiments are shown. Lines indicate borders among the indicated regions identified as in Fig. S2 A. (C) Numbers of CD11c⁺ cells per unit area (1 mm²) of the indicated regions were measured. Means and standard errors of cell numbers are shown. (D) Means and standard errors (n = 3–4) of the absolute numbers of indicated DC subpopulations in the thymus of indicated mouse strains are shown. (E) Immunofluorescence analysis of thymus sections from indicated mice for Foxp3. Representative images from two independent experiments are shown. (F) Numbers of Foxp3⁺ cells per unit area (1 mm²) of the indicated areas were measured. Means and standard errors of cell numbers from three independent measurements are shown. (G) Means and standard errors (n = 3) of the absolute numbers of CD4⁺CD8⁻CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells in the thymus of indicated mice. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001. NS, not significant (P > 0.05).