Tuft cells and fibroblasts promote thymus regeneration through activation of a type-2 immune response [ex_vivo_tuft]

The goal of this study was to determine whether thymic tuft cells activation during acute thymic involution is mediated by IL-13, which is produced by ILC2 upon involution and the receptor for which is expressed by tuft cells. For this purpose we sorted thymic tuft cells from WT mice, treated them ex vivo with recombinant IL-13 for 24 hours, and performed bulk RNA-Seq. Overall design: Tuft cells from thymi of young male WT mice were sorted and grown ex vivo, then treated with rIL-13 or vehicle only (PBS) for 24 hours and then mRNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing using the MARSseq method. 3 replicates were used.