Fig. 5: Overcoming immune suppression with T-cell independent vaccines.

Cultures of purified B cells a or whole splenocytes b from C57BL/6 mice were stimulated two days in vitro with Lip-OVA58-72 a or concanavaline A b in the presence of immunosuppressive dexamethasone (blue), tacrolimus (pink) or cyclosporine A (ochre). IgM from B cells a and IL-2 from T cells b secretion were measured in the culture supernatants by ELISA. The indicated p values were calculated by Kruskal Wallis and testing if treatment affects readout. c OVA-specific IgG2b and IgG3 responses in C57BL/6 mice immunized with Lip-OVA58-72 in the absence or presence of indicated immunosuppressive drugs (n = 4–6). Means and SD are shown. The area under the curve for each group was calculated and compared to untreated (Untr) mice by Kruskal Wallis with Dunn’s multiple comparison tests.