Fig. 6
Pathways regulating cell size or shape suggest control of cTEC morphology by medullary ligands. a–c Representation of data from cortical stroma, while d, e derive from medullary stroma. c–e Normalized to the 12-month-old untreated thymus, which also represents day 0 of the regeneration sequence. a The top 10 Reactome signaling pathways (sorted by hypergeometric q value) mapping to genes expressed by cortical stroma. Reactome pathway designations, and the number of genes expressed in thymic stromal cells vs. the total genes in the pathway, are shown in parentheses. Note that 3 of the top 4 pathways impact mTor signaling, making mTor a prime candidate for changes in cTEC morphology during aging and regeneration. b Change in representation (determined by the Fisher exact test) of the mTor pathway in cortical stroma during atrophy and regeneration. c Dynamics of mTor pathway genes in cortical stroma during atrophy and regeneration. d Dynamic regulation of mTor-activating ligands by medullary stroma; particularly notable are Igf1 and Fgf21. e Medullary stroma also dynamically regulate other classical paracrine mediators of cell growth and morphology, including members of the Sema, chemokine, Wnt, and Tgfb signaling pathways. Source data are provided in Supplementary Data 1
