Fig. 2: Dendritic cells from old mice impair cardiac allograft survival in young DBA/2J mice.

a 2 × 10⁶ CD11b⁺CD11c⁺ DCs were sorted from old and young C57BL/6 mice and administered i.v. into young DBA/2J mice 7 days prior to allogeneic cardiac transplants. b Kaplan–Meier analysis of cardiac allografts from old and young C57BL/6 mice transplanted into untreated DBA/2J recipients compared with those that had received adoptively transferred CD11b⁺CD11c⁺ DCs from old and young B6 mice (old donor vs. old donor + old DCs (p = 0.0216)/+ young DCs (p = 0.0005) and young donor vs. young donor + young DCs (p < 0.0001)/+ old DCs (0.0182); (n = 8 biologically independent animals). c By day 11 after transplantation, grafts were procured, perfused, and 5 mm sections were stained with H&E for pathological evaluation (p = 0.0011); n = 10/group, results are representative of at least three independent experiments. Column plots display mean with standard of the mean (SEM). Statistical significance for survival data was determined by log-rank Mantel–Cox test while pathological scores were compared by two-tailed Mann–Whitney-test. Asterisks indicate p values *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, and ***p ≤ 0.001, only significant values are shown. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.