Fig. 2.

T cell development in T cell-specific NF1-deficient mice. All experiments were performed with littermate Nf1^fl/fl and Nf1^fl/fl plck-cre mice. A, At left are shown representative two-color flow cytometry plots of CD4 versus CD8 staining of whole thymi (CD90.2⁺ gate). Numbers indicate the percent of cells in each quadrant. The bar graph at right shows the mean number plus 1 SEM of the indicated thymocyte populations (Nf1^fl/fl, n=10; Nf1^fl/fl plck-cre n=7). B, At left are shown representative plots of CD44 versus CD25 staining of gated DN thymocytes (CD90.2⁺ and CD24^hi gates). The bar graph at right shows the mean number plus 1 SEM of DN1 (CD44⁺, CD25⁻), DN2 (CD44⁺, CD25⁺), DN3 (CD44^lo, CD25⁺) and DN4 (CD44⁻, CD25⁻) thymocytes (Nf1^fl/fl, n=10; Nf1^fl/fl plck-cre n=7). C, At left are shown representative plots of CD69 versus TCRβ staining of thymocytes (TCRβ gate). The bar graph at right shows the mean number plus 1 SEM of DP1 (TCRβ ⁺CD69⁻), DP2 (TCRβ ⁺CD69⁺), DP3 (TCRβ ^hi, CD69⁺) and SP (TCRβ ^hi, CD69⁻) thymocytes (Nf1^fl/fl, n=10; Nf1^fl/fl plck-cre n=7). Statistical significance was determined using a Student two-sample t test. *p < 0.05, **p <0.01.