Figure 4: Fibrinogen drives accumulation of myelin antigen-specific T cells.

(a) Experimental design diagram: C57BL/6 mice were stereotaxically injected with fibrinogen or ACSF in the corpus callosum. Seven days after injection, lymphocytes were prepared from draining lymph nodes and stimulated with MOG_35–55 for 7 d. I-A^b MOG_35–55 tetramer was used to detect myelin-specific CD4⁺ T cells in fibrinogen-injected WT mice. I-A^b OVA_323–339 tetramer was used as a negative control for MOG_35–55 tetramer staining. (b) Flow cytometry analysis of I-A^b MOG_35–55 tetramer stained CD4⁺ T cells 7 days after MOG_35–55 stimulation. No tetramer-positive cells were detected with I-A^b OVA_323–339 tetramer. Graph shown number of I-A^b MOG_35–55 tetramer stained CD4⁺ T cells. Data are presented as mean±s.e.m., n=8–9, with each sample being pooled from 2–3 mice from three independent experiments. ***P<0.001 (non-parametric Mann–Whitney U-test). (c) Proliferation analysis of BrdU incorporation in CD4⁺ T cells of ACSF- and fibrinogen-injected mice, stimulated with MOG_35–55 for 7 days. Data are presented as mean±s.e.m. (four independent experiments with pooled cells from 2–3 mice per experiment for ACSF and fibrinogen), *P<0.05 (non-parametric Mann–Whitney U-test). d, days.