Characterizing the Thymic Epithelial Cell Network Structure by Fluorescence Whole Slide Scanning and 3D SEM Array Tomography

The goal of this study was to develop an imaging approach to assess the integrity of the thymic epithelium in preclinical mouse models. The thymus is the most sensitive organ to cytoreductive treatments, and it rapidly involutes after chemotherapy insult in pediatric cancer patients. By using automated fluorescent whole slide scanning and complementary 3D SEM array tomography, we were able to visualize the biological structure of the thymic epithelial cell (TEC) network, analyze branching of this network, and obtain a more complete three-dimensional morphological structure of the cortical thymic epithelial cell (cTEC) compartment. The establishment of this imaging method will allow researchers to move forward in comparing the integrity of the cTEC in different conditions, such as different treatment conditions, for example, chemotherapy and irradiation, as well as different ages.