白念珠菌菌血症诱导小鼠皮质胸腺细胞凋亡

采用白念珠诱导小鼠胸腺内细胞凋亡，对其发生部位和累及的胸腺内细胞表型进行了研究。结果发现：静脉注射白念珠菌入小鼠体内６ｈ后，开始出现胸腺细胞凋亡；１２ｈ、１８ｈ和２４ｈ胸腺凋亡细胞百分率不断增加；ＣＤ３＾＋和ＣＤ８＾＋细胞百分率均较对照组有明显的下降；胸腺内细胞凋亡主要发生在皮质区，而髓质区别少。表明白念珠菌能诱导小鼠胸腺细胞凋亡（主要是未成熟ＣＤ３＾＋ ＣＤ４＾＋ ＣＤ９＾＋细胞及少量成熟的ＣＤ

Intravenous infection of C. albicans induces apoptosis of cortical thymocytes in mice]

In this study, we aimed to understand the location of apoptotic cells in murine thymus and phenotype of murine thymocytes involved in C. albicans induced apoptosis. Results showed that significant increase of apoptotic cells in thymus began at 6 h after intravenous injection of C. albicans and kept increased at 12 h, 18 h and 24 h. Quantitative changes of thymocytes with different phenotype measured by flow cytometry revealed that percentage of CD3+ and CD8+ cells were significantly reduced compared to the controls. Moreover in situ cell death detection of thymic tissue revealed that apoptotic cells induced by C. albicans mainly located in the thymic cortex, while in the thymic medulla a very small number of thymocytes was involved. Taken together our study indicates that C. albicans induces apoptosis of murine thymocytes, moreover the apoptosis possibly involves the major immature CD3+ CD4+ CD8+ cells in the thymic cortex and minor mature CD3+ CD4- CD8+ cells in the thymic medulla.