Figure 3
From: Regulatory T cells are essential to promote proper CD4 T-cell priming upon mucosal infection
Antigen-specific CD4 T-cell activation and priming following herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) infection are compromised in the absence of regulatory T cells (Tregs). (a) Experimental setup. Foxp3DTR mice were injected with diphtheria toxin (DT) on days −2, −1, and +1 relative to the day of infection. Alternatively, Treg-sufficient mice were injected with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) instead of DT. Mice were infected intravaginally with 1.88 × 105 plaque-forming units of HSV-2 186ΔKpn expressing ovalbumin (OVA; OVA groups), whereas no OVA groups were infected with the same quantity of HSV-2 186ΔKpn. (b) Percentage of transferred OT-II cells showing increased expression of CD69 in the draining lymph nodes (dLNs) of 3-day infected mice. (c) Percentage of transferred OT-II cells showing increased expression of Nur77 in the dLNs of 3-day infected mice. (d) The number of OT-II cells recovered from the dLNs of mice 3 days after infection. All data come from two to three experiments with 4–5 mice in each group. Each data set was first screened for outliers using the ROUT test with a Q value of 0.2%. Statistical significance was then determined using an ordinary one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s test to compare the mean of each group with the mean of all other groups. **P⩽0.01, ***P⩽0.001, ****P⩽0.0001. Error bars show s.d. i.v., intravenous.
