Cell Reports
Volume 9, Issue 1, 9 October 2014, Pages 402-415
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Global Transcriptional Profiling Reveals Distinct Functions of Thymic Stromal Subsets and Age-Related Changes during Thymic Involution

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2014.08.070Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • During involution, cell-cycle genes and E2F3 targets are downregulated in TEC subsets

  • Thymic dendritic cell subsets acquire proinflammatory features during involution

  • Transcriptional profiling of thymic cell subsets gives insight into stromal biology

  • Thymic stromal and thymocyte data sets are provided in a searchable platform

Summary

Age-associated thymic involution results in diminished T cell output and function in aged individuals. However, molecular mediators contributing to the decline in thymic function during early thymic involution remain largely unknown. Here, we present transcriptional profiling of purified thymic stromal subsets from mice 1, 3, and 6 months of age spanning early thymic involution. The data implicate unanticipated biological functions for a subset of thymic epithelial cells. The predominant transcriptional signature of early thymic involution is decreased expression of cell-cycle-associated genes and E2F3 transcriptional targets in thymic epithelial subsets. Also, expression of proinflammatory genes increases with age in thymic dendritic cells. Many genes previously implicated in late involution are already deregulated by 3–6 months of age. We provide these thymic stromal data sets, along with thymocyte data sets, in a readily searchable web-based platform, as a resource for investigations into thymocyte:stromal interactions and mechanisms of thymic involution.

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This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

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Co-first author