Description
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.