Fig. 4

Effects of Treg ablation on IL-2 and IL-2R α-chain. DEREG mice were infected with FV and mice were Treg-depleted by repeated injections of DT. Uninfected DEREG mice were used as controls. Twelve days post infection blood and spleen were taken for analysis. Serum was analyzed for IL-2 concentration by ELISA (a). Samples of five different experiments were tested with at least ten samples per group. The increase of IL-2 concentration in serum is shown by bars and dots (±SEM). Statistically significant changes were determined by Mann–Whitney test and indicated by triple asterisk for p < 0.001. Representative dot plots of CD25 expression on splenic NK cells (NK1.1⁺ CD49b⁺ CD3⁻) in FV-infected and FV-infected and Treg-depleted mice are shown in (b). Expression of IL-2R α-chain (CD25) on NK cells was analyzed by flow cytometry and indicated by mean (±SEM) values and dots (c). A minimum of eight mice in at least two independent experiments were analyzed.