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. 2020 Jan 29;16(2):239–250. doi: 10.1007/s12015-020-09955-y

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

TESC/SCC-based strategy for thymus regenerative therapy in partially thymectomized infants. Thymic epithelial stem cell/Small chemical compound (TESC/SCC)-based strategy for autologous thymus regenerative therapy in infants could include the development of clinical grade protocols for collection, preparation and cryopreservation of primary infant thymic tissue and TESCenriched samples. These TESC could be used further to screen SCC for regulation, differentiation and proliferation of human TESC. The selected compounds would be tested for clonal expansion of TESC in vitro and for the reconstitution of thymic function in vivo in terms of maturation, differentiation and tolerance of autologous T cells as well as for supporting thymus tissue growth. Finally, full pharmacological evaluation of the properly selected and optimised compounds would be performed for high efficacy and low toxicity and further drug development. An actual challenge is the optimization of thymectomy procedure in infants to preserve a thymic fragment for consequent postsurgical thymus regenerative therapy. An additional impact on the efficacy of the post-surgical rehabilitation may provide the quality life monitoring of thymectomized patients in relation to their resistance to infections, allergies, autoimmune, oncological and other diseases associated with the impaired thymic function.