Figure 5: Aged mice exhibit diminished level of expression of immunomodulatory genes in the spleen in during immunization.

Young and aged (20 month old) mice were immunized with P-11 vaccine at day 0, given a vaccine boost at day 14. At experimental endpoint at day 28, spleens were harvested and qPCR was performed on splenocytes using specific primers to determine the levels of immunomodulatory genes MHC II, CXCR5, CCR7, SWAP70, Connexin43 and L-Selectin. Gene expression levels were normalized to GAPDH. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM; n = 6–8/group. Statistical analysis conducted by nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test, *p < 0.05 or **p < 0.01, compared with young mice.