Figure 5. MCL-1 is required for mature TEC survival.

(A) Multi dimension scaling (MDS) plot comparing RNA-seq expression profiles for cTECs and mTECs from one month old controls and Mcl1^ΔFoxn1 mice. Libraries are labelled and coloured according to the genotype and TEC subset. Distances on the plot correspond to leading log2-fold-change between each pair of samples. (B) Genes that were differentially expressed (FDR<0.05) in Mcl1^ΔFoxn1 cTEC relative to controls that are involved in TEC (black) or thymocyte (grey) development. (C-F) Histograms of β5t (C), CD40 (D) expression in CD45^-EpCAM⁺MHCII⁺Ly51⁺ cTECs and MHCI (E), CD80 (F) in CD45^-EpCAM⁺MHCII⁺ TECs isolated from 5 weeks old mice (blue and red histograms show controls and Mcl1^ΔFoxn1 mice, respectively). (G) Thymic cellularity (left) and TEC (CD45^-MHCII⁺EpCAM⁺) numbers (right) of 4-7 week-old mice of the indicated genotypes. (H) Histogram of flow cytometric analysis of MCL-1 expression in CD45^-EpCAM⁺MHCII⁺ TECs isolated from 4-7 week-old mice of the indicated genotypes. Data are representative of three independent experiments (n≥ 2/group) (except A-F). Graph bars indicate mean ± SEM and groups were compared with a Student’s t test (two sided, unpaired). ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001; **** p<0.0001.