Furthermore, we found that C. albicans infection significantly increased the percentage of thymic T cells expressing apoptosis-related markers, including Annexin V and caspase-3, by increasing the expression levels of proapoptosis-related genes (GILZ and Bim) and decreasing the expression levels of antiapoptosis-related genes (Bcl2 and BCL-XL).27,45 However, we surprisingly found that priming with the flo8 null mutant or mannans extracted from serum-induced flo8 mutant cells could completely block C. albicans-induced thymus atrophy by inhibiting the apoptosis of thymic T cells. This evidence concerns the gene BCL2 and thymus neoplasm.