The effects of immunosuppressive drugs on the regulation of activation-induced apoptotic cell death in thymocytes

This study investigated the effects of immunosuppressive drugs on the regulation of thymocyte sensitivity to clonal deletion via programmed cell death, or apoptosis. We have previously shown that TcR/CD3 cross-linking and intracellular stimuli that mimic TcR/CD3 crosslinking induce apoptosis in many immature thymocytes in the presence, but not in the absence, of cyclosporine (CsA). We have interpreted those results to suggest that TcR/CD-associated signals induce a CsA-sensitive mechanism that protects the cells from activation-induced apoptosis