Fig. 5.

Macrophages/phagocytes are essential for steady-state IL-4 production in NKT2 cells. Expression of IL-4 (huCD2) and PD-1 in thymic iNKT cells from F1 littermate controls and Zbtb46Cre⁺ Cd1d^fl/fl mice (A) or the following F1 littermate controls and DTR strains after a 9-d course of DT treatment: BDCA2-DTR^+/− (C) and LysMCre⁺ Csf1r^{LsL−DTR+/−} (E). Expression of eomes in CD8SP thymocytes (G); representative data are shown. Percentage and cell number of huCD2⁺ cells, cell number of PLZF^high cells in thymic iNKT cells, or percentage and number of eomes⁺ CD8SP thymocytes from the indicated mice are shown in B, D, F, and H. Data are representative of 7 experiments with n = 20, n = 9 (A and B); 3 experiments with n = 14, n = 12 for C and D; 7 experiments with n = 20, n = 25 (E and F); and 6 experiments with n = 27, n = 22 (G and H). Unpaired t test, ^nsP > 0.5 (not significant), *P < 0.025, ***P = 0.0002, ****P < 0.0001. (I) Correlation of percentage or cell number of huCD2⁺ cells in thymic iNKT cells with the cell number of F4/80⁺ Mertk⁺ thymic macrophages in F1 littermate controls and F1 LysMCre⁺ Csf1r^{LsL−DTR+/−}–treated mice. Linear regression was used to calculate goodness of fit (R²).