Figure 3.

Stimulation of nuclear receptors increases the uptake of both apoptotic and necrotic thymocytes by BMDMs. BMDMs were treated with the RXR agonist 9cRA (A), with the RAR agonist ATRA (B), with the LXR agonist GW3965 (C) or with the GR agonist dexamethasone acetate (D) all in 1 μm concentrations for 24 h. Apoptotic or necrotic thymocytes were added to BMDMs in 5 : 1 target cell : macrophage ratio. Apoptosis and necrosis were induced as described in Materials and methods and phagocytosis was allowed for 60 min. Results are expressed as mean ± SD of three independent experiments (*significantly different from its own control, P < 0.05 determined by unpaired Student's t test). ns: not significant.