Gross morphology and TCR rearrangement in aged WT and Foxn1Tg. (A) Gross morphology of thymi from 2 WT (top) and 2 Foxn1Tg (line 60) mice 13 months of age (bottom). The numbers denote total number of thymocytes obtained from each thymus. *Translucent/fatty areas of the thymus. (B-C) Rearrangement of TCR-α chain was measured as the number of sjTREC/105 thymocytes (B), and total number of sjTREC/thymus (C) in old (12-15 months of age) Foxn1Tg (line 60 and line 5) and WT mice. (D) D-J rearrangement of TCR-β chain was determined by the number of germline copies of Dβ1 and Dβ2; black bars represent Foxn1 Tg; and white bars, WT mice. Quantitative PCR was used for both assays; each sample was performed in triplicates. Values in parentheses indicate the numbers of mice in each group. P values from comparison between WT and Foxn1Tg mice as determined by t test are as follows: *P = .019; **P = .004; #P = .040; ##P = .063.
