The efforts of this laboratory are directed at defining the non-lymphoid elements comprising the thymic environment, and gaining a better understanding of their contributions to the production and differentiation of T lymphocytes. A number of approaches are taken, including monoclonal antibody technology to define the phenotypic heterogeneity of the stromal cells comprising the thymic environment and to identify stromal cell surface molecules involved in T-lymphopoiesis. Molecular biological approaches are used to clone genes encoding stromal cell surface molecules and to generate soluble forms of these cell surface molecules as a means to assess their functional significance in vitro and in vivo. Tissue culture approaches are utilized to generate stromal cell lines representative of the different stromal cell populations and to assess their ability to support various aspects of T-lymphopoiesis in vitro. Finally, ultrastructural immunohistochemistry is used to precisely define the expression of cell interaction molecules within the thymic environment.
