Fig. 2: TEC phenotype of Eed^fl/fl::β5tCre mice.

a Quantification of cortical (CD45⁻EpCAM⁺Ly51⁺UEA1⁻) and medullary (CD45⁻EpCAM⁺Ly51⁻UEA1⁺) TEC subpopulations isolated from mice with the indicated genotype. Representative contour plots are from 4-week-old mice, frequencies and absolute cell numbers of cTEC and mTEC are from mice with the indicated genotype (Eed^fl/fl::β5tCre: grey diamonds, Eed^fl/fl mice: black circles) at ages shown (week 0: n = 3, week 1: n = 7, week 4: n = 6). b Flow cytometric analysis of mTEC from 4-week-old mice for MHCII and AIRE expression. Representative contour plots and bar graphs displaying the frequencies of individual subpopulations (mTEC:^lo white bars black circles, mTEC^hiAIRE:⁻ light grey bars black diamonds, mTEC^hi AIRE:⁺ grey bars black triangles) for each of the indicated genotypes (n = 5). c Quantification of total and TEC cellularity and determination of TEC subset distributions in Eed^fl/wt::β5tCre and control mice. Data are pooled from two independent experiments with female (n = 4 Eed:^fl/wt:β5tCre: light grey bars with grey diamonds, n = 4 Eed:^fl/wt black bars with grey circles) and male mice (n = 6 Eed^fl/wt::β5tCre: light grey bars with white diamonds, n = 2 Eed:^fl/fl black bars with white circles) at 4–6 weeks of age. Cellularities are displayed for each sex separately, TEC subset frequencies are pooled. d TEC subset frequencies, cellularities and proliferation in 4-week-old Eed^fl/fl::β5tCre (n = 3, white bars with grey diamonds) and Eed^fl/fl mice (n = 3, grey bars with black circles). Representative histograms showing BrdU incorporation and frequencies of BrdU-positive cTEC and mTEC subsets. Data in graphs represent mean and standard deviations (SD) and are pooled from independent experiments (a, c) or display one experiment representative of two independent experiments (b, d). Contour plots (a, b) and histograms (d) are representative of data in bar graphs. The gating for thymic epithelia is displayed in Supplementary Fig. 1. n = biologically independent replicates per group. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001 (two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test). Asterisks in red indicate comparisons between Eed^fl/fl::β5tCre and Eed^fl/fl mice, whereas black and grey asterisks compare results from identical mouse strains at different time points. Source data including exact statistical test values are provided in the Source Data file.