Fig 2. Paracoccidioides brasiliensis infection leads to decreased thymocytes and TECs cellularity with increased cell death of CD4⁺CD8⁺ thymocytes and mTEC without cortisol contribution.

Male BALB/c mice (n = 5 mice/group for each analyses per experiment replicate) were inoculated with 5x10⁶ Pb18 yeasts contained in PBS intraperitoneally or with only PBS as control group. One hundred and twenty days after inoculation mice were killed, the thymus and the blood were collected and processed individually for analysis. A) Total thymocytes numbers were lower in 120dpi compared to the naive group. B) Frequency of thymocytes subpopulations remained unchanged between naive and 120dpi groups. C) Frequency of thymic epithelial cells (TEC) subpopulations changed considerably in 120dpi, higher percentages of mTEC were found while cTEC frequency decreased in comparison to the naive group. D) Higher percentage of apoptotic double positive thymocytes from the 120dpi group compared to the naive group, but not in other thymocytes subpopulations. E) Higher percentage of apoptotic medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC) from the 120dpi group compared to the naive group, while no alterations in cTEC apoptosis was found. F) Cortisol production was not altered between the naive and 120dpi groups. At least 20000 events were analyzed with FlowJo vX.0.7 (Tree Star Inc., Ashland, OR, USA). Statistical analysis was carried out with Student’s t-test. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001. Representative data from three independent experiments with similar results.