Table 2.

Aire expression (Aire mRNA and Aire protein) in murine extra-thymic systems, organs, and tissues.

	Aire expression negative or negligibly positive		Aire expression moderately or strongly positive
Systems, organs, tissues	Techniques	Cell types	Techniques	Cell types
Bone marrow			isH [25] IHC [25]	Myeloblasts [25] Lymphoblasts [25] Megacaryocytes [25]
Lymph nodes	WB [26] IHC [25, 26]	Lymphocytes (germinal-center) [25]	isH [25] RT-PCR [25–27] IHC [25, 28]	Lymphocytes (germinal-center) [28] Lymphocytes (paracortical) [28] Lymphocytes (medullary) [25] DCs [25]
Spleen	NB [29, 30] isH [28] RT-PCR [30] WB [26] IHC [25, 26, 28]	Lymphocytes (red-pulp) [28] Lymphocytes (white-pulp) [25]	isH [25] RT-PCR [25–29, 31] IHC [25, 28] IF [28]	Neutrophilic granulocytes [25] Lymphocytes (red-pulp) [25] Lymphocytes (white-pulp) [28] B lymphocytes [28] T lymphocytes [28] DCs [25] DCs (myeloid-lineage) [26, 31] DCs (lymphoid-lineage) [26] Macrophages [25] Smooth-muscle cells [25]
Fetal liver			RT-PCR [25]
Adult liver	NB [29, 30] isH [28] RT-PCR [27, 30] WB [26, 28] IHC [26, 28]		isH [25] RT-PCR [25, 26, 28] IHC [25, 32]	Hepatocytes [25, 32] Küpffer cells [25]
Peripheral blood leukocytes	RT-PCR [26]		ICC [25]	Neutrophilic granulocytes [25] PBLs [25] Monocytes [25]
Skeletal muscle	NB [29, 30] WB [26] IHC [26]		RT-PCR [26, 29]
Heart	NB [29] isH [28] RT-PCR [27, 30] IHC [28]		RT-PCR [28, 29]
Respiratory system (upper and lower tract)	NB [29] isH [28] RT-PCR [27] WB [26] IHC [26, 28]	Small-airway epithelial cells [28] Alveolar cells [28]	RT-PCR [28–30] IHC [25, 28]	Airway epithelial cells [25] Large-airway epithelial cells [28] Type-1 and type-2 pneumocytes [25] Alveolar macrophages [25]
Salivary glands	RT-PCR [27]		IHC [25]	Tubulo-acinar and duct cells [25]
Gastrointestinal system (upper tract)	NB [30] isH [28] RT-PCR [27]		RT-PCR [28] IHC [25]	Mucosal and glandular epithelial cells [25]
Gastrointestinal system (small intestine and large bowel)	NB [30] isH [28] IHC [28]	Enterocytes (small intestine) [28] Neuroendocrine cells [28]	RT-PCR [28] IHC [25, 28]	Mucosal and glandular epithelial cells [25] Goblet cells [28]
Hypophysis			IHC [25]	Anterior- and intermediate-lobe cells [25]
Thyroid	RT-PCR [27, 30]		IHC [25]	Follicular and parafollicular cells [25]
Pancreas	RT-PCR [26, 27, 30]		IHC [25]	Langerhans-islet cells [25] Acinar cells [25]
Adrenal gland	isH [28] RT-PCR [27, 28] WB [26, 28] IHC [26, 28]		RT-PCR [26, 30] IHC [25]	Cortical-layer cells [25] Medullary chromaffin cells [25]
Urinary system	NB [29] isH [28] RT-PCR [27, 29] WB [26] IHC [26]		isH [25] RT-PCR [25, 28, 30] IHC [25, 28]	Glomerular and tubular epithelial cells [25, 28] Urinary-tract epithelial cells [25] Bladder smooth-muscle cells [25]
Male genital system	NB [29] isH [28] WB [26] IHC [26, 28]	Mature germinal cells [28]	isH [25] RT-PCR [25, 26, 28–30] IHC [25, 28]	Germinal cells [25] Immature germinal cells [28] Sertoli cells [25] Leydig cells [25] Spermatic-tract epithelial cells [25]
Female genital system	isH [28] WB [26] IHC [26]		isH [25] RT-PCR [27, 28, 30] IHC [25, 28]	Oocytes [25] Follicular cells [25, 28] Luteal cells [25] Interstitial cells [25] Fallopian-tube epithelial cells [28] Endometrial cells [25] Myometrial cells [25]
Central and peripheral nervous system	NB [29] isH [28] RT-PCR [29]		isH [25] RT-PCR [25, 28] IHC [25, 28, 32]	Neurons of cerebral cortex, basal nuclei, brainstem nuclei, spinal cord [25, 28] Granular neurons, Purkinje cells [25, 32] Glial cells [25]
Eye and annexes	RT-PCR [27]		IHC [25]	Retinal-layer elements [25]

Aire: autoimmune regulator, PBLs: peripheral blood lymphocytes, DCs: dendritic cells, NB: Northern blotting, isH: in situ hybridization, RT-PCR: reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, WB: Western blotting, IHC: immunohistochemistry, ICC: immunocytochemistry, and IF: immunofluorescence.