| Abstract: | It is widely accepted that the thymic microenvironment regulates normal thymopoiesis
through a highly coordinated and complex series of cellular and cytokine interactions. A direct
corollary of this is that abnormalities within the microenvironment could be of etiologic
significance in T-cell-based diseases. Our laboratory has developed a large panel of
monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that react specifically with epithelial or nonepithelial
markers in the thymus. We have taken advantage of these reagents to characterize the
thymic microenvironment of several genetic strains of mice, including BALB/cJ,
C57BL/6J, NZB/BlnJ, SM/J, NOD/Ltz, NOD/Ltz-scid/sz, C57BL/6J-Hcph
me/Hcph me, and
ALY/NscJcl-aly/aly mice, and littermate control animals. We report herein that control
mice, including strains of several backgrounds, have a very consistent phenotypic profile
with this panel of monoclonal antibodies, including reactivity with thymic epithelial cells
in the cortex, the medulla and the corticomedullary junction, and the extracellular matrix.
In contrast, the disease-prone strains studied have unique, abnormal staining of thymic cortex
and medulla at both the structural and cellular levels. These phenotypic data suggest
that abnormalities in interactions between developing thymocytes and stromal cells characterize
disease-prone mice. |
