FIGURE 4.
An Agonist is Required to Induce Foxp3 Expression.
A) Dot plots show CD4 versus CD8 staining of thymocytes isolated from N3.L2 thymi treated with 0 μM-10 μM N72 peptide in NTOC. Numbers indicate the percent of live cells. Bar graphs depict each thymic subset (DN, white; DP, black; 4SP, striped; 8SP, grey) as a percent (mean + SE) of live cells.
B) Percent (left panel) and absolute number (right panel) of Foxp3+ cells (mean ± SE) in each respective gate (DN, open triangle; DP, open circle; 4SP, closed circle; and 8SP, closed triangle), from the same samples as in A.
C) Foxp3 versus CAb staining of CD4SP thymocytes isolated from N3.L2 thymi treated with 10 μM T72 peptide (left panel) or 10 μM I72 peptide (right panel) in NTOC. Numbers indicate CAbhighFoxp3+ cells as a percent of the CD4SP gate.
These results are representative of 2-8 independent experiments with a total of 2-19 data points (5-34 lobes) per group. Asterisks indicate a significant difference in peptide- versus untreated samples. *: p ≤ 0.05, **: p ≤ 0.01, ***: p ≤ 0.001.