Corticosteroids, calcium ionophores and anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies kill mouse
thymocytes incubated in vitro. Cell death is preceded by extensive DNA fragmentation into
oligonucleosomal subunits. This type of cell death (apoptosis), which physiologically occurs
in the intrathymic process of immune cell selection, is usually evaluated by either
electrophoretic or colorimetric methods which measure DNA fragmentation in the nuclear
extracts. These techniques are unable to determine the percentage of apopotic nuclei or …