Figure 7: IL-2 is more important for CD8⁺ T-cell expansion at the site of inflammation.

(a) Ratio of divided IL-2Rα WT:IL-2Rα KO OT-I cells recovered from B6.βOVA islet graft, draining renal LN and non-draining inguinal LN after co-transfer (10⁶ of each) into B6.CD45.1 host mice. Ratios were calculated for individual organs with results for individual mice connected by dashed lines and compared by two-tailed paired t-test. Results shown for n=5 recipient mice and representative of three independent experiments. (b) IL-2 expression in endogenous CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ cells and transferred OT-I cells in B6 recipients of B6.βOVA islet grafts. Upper panels show representative flow cytometry plots for graft draining renal LN (solid grey) and graft (black line). Lower panels summarize mean fluorescent intensity (MFI) of IL-2 expression for renal LNs taken from ungrafted (Control LN), as well as graft and draining renal LN (dLN) of grafted mice. Results shown as mean+s.d., n=6 pooled from two independent experiments and compared by two-tailed unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction.