High Thymic Output of Effector CD4⁺ Cells May Lead to a Treg : T Effector Imbalance in the Periphery in NOD Mice

Figure 3

Transferred NOD CD4⁺ Tregs persist/survive similarly to B6 controls under both lymphopenic and nonlymphopenic conditions. (a) Five hundred thousand purified CD4⁺CD25⁺ cells (~92% Foxp3⁺) from NOD or B6 mice were transferred into NOD.RAG or B6.RAG (lymphopenic) recipients, respectively. Four weeks after transfer, LN and spleen cells were collected and absolute numbers were counted from individual samples. Percentages of CD4⁺ cells that express Foxp3 were analyzed. The percent recovery of transferred cells was calculated based on the absolute number of recovered donor CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ cells divided by the total cell number injected. (b, c) Five hundred thousand purified CD4⁺CD25⁺ cells and CD4⁺CD25^- cells from NOD (Thy1.2) or B6.SJL (CD45.1) mice were transferred into NOD.NON (Thy1.1) or B6 (CD45.2) intact (nonlymphopenic) recipients, respectively. Four or 8 weeks after transfer, LN and spleen cells were collected and the absolute number of cells from individual samples were counted. Percentages of CD4⁺ cells that did or did not express Foxp3 were analyzed. The percent recovery of transferred cells was calculated based on the absolute number of recovered donor CD4+Foxp3⁺ (b) or CD4+CD25^-Foxp3^- (c) cells divided by the total number of respective donor cells ().

(a)

(b)

(c)