Figure 2.

miRNAs are required for the maintenance of thymocyte cellularity. (A) Total thymic cellularity from 6-week-old mice was assessed by flow cytometry. Plots show thymocyte subsets: CD4⁻CD8⁻ double negative (DN), CD4⁺CD8⁺ double positive (DP), CD4⁺ single positive (SP), CD8⁺ SP thymocytes and CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ Treg cells. Relative frequencies are shown as a proportion of all thymocytes with the exception of Treg cells, which are shown as a proportion of CD4⁺ SP thymocytes. Total thymocyte data are shown as mean + SEM of 9–13 samples pooled from four independent experiments. Thymocyte subset data are shown as mean + SEM of 7–8 samples pooled from at least two independent experiments. (B) Total splenic cellularity from 6- to 8-week old mice. Indicated lymphocyte subsets are shown as a proportion of all splenocytes with the exception of Treg cells, which are shown as a proportion of CD4⁺ T cells. All splenocyte data are shown as mean + SEM of 7–11 samples pooled from four independent experiments. White bars in (A) and (B) indicate Dgcr8^ΔTEC mice, black bars indicate littermate controls. * denotes p ≤ 0.05, ** denotes p ≤ 0.01, and *** denotes p ≤ 0.001, Student's t-test.