[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.
Chen
Y X
YX
Department of Immunology, Hunan Medical University, Changsha 410078.
Wei
C F
CF
Jiang
H M
HM
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D017252:CD3 Complex; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology; D002177:Candidiasis / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D051379:Mice; D011897:Random Allocation; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000473:pathology*
D017252:CD3 Complex