FIGURE 3.

Maturation of progenitor T cells on artificial thymic organoid cultures (ATO). A, Experimental schema. B, ATO at week 6. Images of ATOs divided by four or nine pieces at ×10 magnification were taken using inverted microscope (Eclipse Ts2R, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan), then merged those into one images using a large imaging stitching tool with NIS-elements Basic Research software (Nikon). C, Representative flow cytometry plot showing progenitor T cells and T-cell development on ATOs. Week 2 is the timing of placing progenitor cells onto ATOs, and week 6 is the timing for harvesting ATO cells for further analysis. More abundant expression of progenitor T and mature T-cell markers on cells were noted at week 6 than at week 2, with a comparison of cells maintained under ambient air (21% O₂) vs under physioxia (5% O₂) (n = 3)