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Isolation of Myeloid Dendritic Cells and Epithelial Cells from Human Thymus
Published on: September 19, 2013
Quantification of dendritic cell subsets in human thymus tissues of various ages
Yan Li1, Pei Chen2, Hao Huang3
1Department of Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China.
Insights
Human thymic dendritic cells (DCs) maintain density with age, ensuring immune tolerance. Plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) increase with age, suggesting additional roles beyond tolerance in the thymus.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
- Aging Research
Background:
- Dendritic cells (DCs) are crucial for central tolerance in the thymus and pathogen recognition.
- Previous research has not extensively investigated the density changes of human thymic DCs with age.
- Human thymus samples across various ages were analyzed to understand thymic DC dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the age-related changes in the density and distribution of human thymic dendritic cell subsets.
- To determine the functional implications of these changes for immune regulation in the aging thymus.
Main Methods:
- Human thymus samples from individuals of various ages were collected.
- Tissue sectioning and staining were performed to identify and quantify DC subsets.
- The areas of the thymic cortex and medulla, along with DC densities, were calculated.
Main Results:
- All common DC subsets were identified in the human thymus across different age groups.
- DCs were predominantly located in the thymic epithelial space, particularly the medulla.
- The medulla-to-cortex area ratio increased with age due to faster cortical atrophy.
- The densities of specific DC subsets changed with age, altering the overall DC composition.
- Plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) showed a gradual density increase with aging.
Conclusions:
- Despite thymic epithelial space reduction, thymic DC subset densities remain constant to ensure efficient autoreactive thymocyte screening.
- The increasing density of thymic pDCs with aging suggests a role beyond central tolerance.
- These findings highlight the dynamic nature of the thymus in immune surveillance throughout life.
Background:
Dendritic cells (DCs) in the thymus are involved in central tolerance formation, but they also have other functions in the thymus, such as pathogen recognition. The density changes of human thymic DCs have been hardly investigated. In this study, human thymus samples of various ages were collected for tissue sectioning and staining. The thymic cortex and medulla area as well as the densities of various subsets of thymic DCs were calculated.
Results:
All common DC subsets were found in the human thymus of various ages. Most DCs had accumulated in the human thymic epithelial space, especially the medulla. We also found that the human thymic cortex had atrophied relatively faster than the medulla, which led to a gradual increase of the area ratio of the medulla to cortex with the increase of age. The densities of DC subsets in the human thymus showed various changes with increasing age, which contributed to the composition changes of DC subsets. The density of plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) in the human thymus had increased gradually with aging, which suggested that pDCs plays another essential role in the thymus in addition to central tolerance.
Conclusions:
Inconsistent with the shrinking of the epithelial space in the thymus, the densities of DC subsets in the epithelial space of the thymus are maintained at a constant level with aging to preserve highly efficient autoreactive thymocyte screening. An increasing density of the thymic pDCs with aging implies an extra function of DCs in the thymus beyond central tolerance.
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