Figure 5: CYR61 enhances thymic output.

(a–b) Blood T-cell counts. (a) Number±s.e.m. of CD8⁺ T cells and (b) CD4⁺ T cells in the blood following engraftment of control-nude (n=6) and CYR61-nude mice (n=5). **P≤0.01; ***P≤0.001 (two-way ANOVA). (c) Gross anatomy of the spleen (S) and kidneys (K) 8 weeks after engraftment of thymic lobes (black arrowheads). Scale bar 10 mm. (d) Number of mTEC and cTEC±s.e.m. in grafts. *P≤0.05; **P≤0.01 (control-nude (n=6) and CYR61-nude mice (n=5), two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test). (e) Number of each thymocyte subsets±s.e.m. in grafts. *P≤0.05 (control-nude (n=6) and CYR61-nude mice (n=5), two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test). (f) CD4/CD8 distribution in grafts from control-nude and CYR61-nude mice. Percentages are mean ±s.e.m. Control-nude (n=6) and CYR61-nude mice (n=5). (g,h) Control and CYR61 lobes were grafted in each kidney of WT mice. Four weeks after transplantation, TCR Vβ usage by thymic CD4⁺ (g) and CD8⁺ (h) T cells were measured by FACS. Results from two independent experiments are pooled and shown ±s.e.m. (n=7). (i) T-cell proliferation assay. CD8⁺- and CD4⁺ T cells from spleen were positively purified and then stimulated in anti-CD3-coated plates with anti-CD28 antibodies for 72 h. Data are the mean of control-nude (n=6) and CYR61-nude mice (n=5) ±s.e.m.