What do you think it means when a treatment reduces the size of MLNs and PPs (I can see it macroscopically and I quantified the change by crushing them and counting the cells)? Do you think it means that the treatment interferes with the immune reposnse? Thanks in advance for your point of view!
It is likely that your treatment is decreasing the number of immune cells inside these organs.
You can stain for the main groups of cells and analyse in flow cytometry (CD8 and CD4 T cells, B cells, macrophages, etc) and see if the composition of the cells inside these organs has changed.
I am late to this discussion, but did you try looking at the apoptotic cells inside the organs of interest? If they reduce in size, the cells are either dying, or emigrating....
Hello,
I did not observe any striking modification of cellular composition... it seems that I just have less cells in the MLNs of these mice. Maybe it can affect their immune responsiveness to pathogens, for example, i don't know... If there were high numbers of dying/dead cells, il think I would have seen it in flow cytometry since i use a viability marker (however it doesn't mean that they are not dead and already eliminated).
Thanks for your help!
Well, if the immune (CD45+) cells are not changing in absolute number and/or composition then you should look at the structural elements of the lymph node (CD45-) which stromal cells, endothelial cells, etc.
A good stain for that is GP38 vs CD31. Should get something like the attached picture.
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