title: Immunohistological analysis of the jun family and the signal transducers and activators of transcription in thymus.
abstract: The Jun family and the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) are involved in proliferation and apoptosis. Moreover, c-Jun and STAT3 cooperate to regulate apoptosis. Therefore, we used double immunostaining to investigate the immunotopographical distribution of phospho-c-Jun (p-c-Jun), JunB, JunD, p-STAT3, p-STAT5, and p-STAT6 in human thymus. JunD was frequently expressed by thymocytes with higher expression in medullary compared to cortical thymocytes. p-c-Jun was frequently expressed by cortical and medullary thymic epithelial cells (TEC) and Hassall bodies (HB). p-STAT3 was frequently expressed by TEC with higher expression in cortical compared to medullary TEC and HB. p-c-Jun, JunB, p-STAT3, p-STAT5, and p-STAT6 were rarely expressed by thymocytes. JunB and JunD were expressed by rare cortical TEC with higher expression in medullary TEC. p-STAT5 and p-STAT6 were expressed by rare cortical and medullary TEC. Double immunostaining revealed p-c-Jun and JunD expression in rare CD11c positive dendritic cells. Our findings suggest a notable implication of JunD in the physiology of thymocytes and p-c-Jun and p-STAT3 in the physiology of TEC. The diversity of the immunotopographical distribution and the expression levels of p-c-Jun, JunB, JunD, p-STAT3, p-STAT5, and p-STAT6 indicates that they are differentially involved in the differentiation of TEC, thymocytes, and dendritic cells.
authors: Department of Pathology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece ; Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Papoudou-Bai
authors: Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Barbouti
authors: Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Vassiliki
authors: V
authors: Galani
authors: Department of Pathology, Agia Sofia Children's Hospital of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece.
authors: Kalliopi
authors: K
authors: Stefanaki
authors: Department of Anatomy-Histology-Embryology, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Panagiotis
authors: P
authors: Kanavaros