Intravital Microscopy of the Native Thymus

Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) is a common treatment for patients suffering from a variety of malignant or benign diseases, reconstituting the hematopoietic system after preconditioning treatment. In patients undergoing HCT, the capacity for the thymus to produce functional T cells is inhibited due to damage from the cytotoxic preconditioning. Endogenous thymus regeneration depends on the complex relationship between thymus stromal cells (including vascular endothelial cells (EC)) and the recruitment of de novo "seeding" thymic progenitor cells (TPCs) from the regenerated bone marrow (BM). It has been demonstrated that ECs are radio-resistant, however in the context of HCT, it is not clear which type of EC (arterial, venous, or capillary) can survive following injury. Moreover, ECs are critical cells in endogenous thymic regeneration and are involved in recruiting TPCs from the BM, but functional damage to the vascular network may alter the hemodynamics and negatively impact TPC homing and thymus regeneration.

Flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and ex vivo imaging techniques have been applied to study the thymus in preclinical mouse models since direct visualization of the native thymus in live mice was deemed impossible. Teleost fish are an alternative model organism for direct thymus observation in vivo but redundant cytokine pathways are present which do not exist in humans and mice. Unlike fish models, in mammals T cell development critically depends on the IL-7 cytokine signaling pathway. Therefore, tools to directly visualize the mouse thymus are needed in order to study functional changes to the vascular system after cytotoxic preconditioning in an immunologically relevant preclinical animal model. We hypothesize that cytotoxic preconditioning causes functional and anatomical changes in blood vessel architecture, especially cortical vasculature, that negatively impacts TPC homing and leads to long-term changes in the thymus microenvironment.

In this project, we developed intravital imaging techniques to visualize the native thymus in live mice. Using our methodology, we were able to quantify the changes to the blood vessel network after sublethal irradiation (4.5 Gy). Our results showed an increase in blood vessel diameter in mice one day after receiving irradiation. We validated this result using tissue clearing and ex vivo imaging. In addition, most cortical blood flow velocity is <500 µm/s in both control and one day after sublethal irradiation, although no significant changes were observed in blood flow velocity and shear rate between the groups at this timepoint.

Taken together, our study suggests that native intravital thymus imaging is a powerful technique enabling functional and anatomical characterization of the thymus vascular network. We believe, further work will help clarify the changes to the vascular system at later timepoints and in the context of higher irradiation doses. This method enables a whole new paradigm for studying thymus biology not previously possible.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.