A Bivalent Recombinant Mycobacterium bovis BCG Expressing the S1 Subunit of the Pertussis Toxin Induces a Polyfunctional CD4⁺ T Cell Immune Response

Figure 5

Bivalent recombinant BCG (rBCG-S1+Sli) vaccine induces higher percentage of polyfunctional CD4⁺T cells. Splenocytes from immunized mice were cultured for 18 h in the presence of CFP or medium only (mock) and stained with anti-CD3-APC-Cy7, anti-CD4-PE-Cy5, TNF-α-FITC and IFN-γ-APC for flow cytometry analysis. (A-C): percentage of CD4⁺ IFN-γ⁺, CD4⁺ TNF-α⁺ and CD4⁺ IFN-γ⁺ TNF-α⁺ T cells are expressed as a fold-change increase after stimulus. (D-F): percentage of CD4⁺ IFN-γ⁺, CD4⁺ TNF-α+ and CD4⁺IFN-γ⁺ TNF-α⁺ T cells in stimulated splenocytes from immunized mice. The bars represent the differences obtained between stimulated (in the presence of CFP) and non-stimulated (mock). ; ns = not significant.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)