This SubSeries is part of SuperSeries GSE25119: Comparison of CD4+ T cells from human fetal and adult donors

Human fetal and adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) were obtained from fetal liver, fetal bone marrow (BM), and adult BM. These were injected into human fetal thymic implants in SCID-hu Thy/Liv mice (4-6 separate mice per HSC donor) and allowed to mature into single positive CD4+ (SP4) thymocytes over the course of 7-8 weeks. SP4 thymocytes from injected stem cells were subsequently sort-purified from thymic implants and gene expression was performed.

HSC from fetal (age 18-22 gestational weeks) and adult (age: 19-43 year old) HLA-A2+ donors were obtained from different tissues. After injection into human fetal thymic implants (SCID-hu Thy/Liv HLA-A2-) the cells were allowed to mature into thymocytes and sorted on the basis of HLA-A2+ expression and CD3+CD4+ (SP4) expression. 3 separate thymic implants were analyzed for each group.