Fig. 4.

Expression of IFN-γ and IL-4 mRNAs in HER-2/neu-specific CD4⁺ T cells from vaccinated mice by quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis. IFN-γ and IL-4 mRNA expressions in purified CD4⁺ T cells isolated from draining inguinal LNs of different groups and stimulated with the recombinant extracellular domain of human ErbB2 was determined using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The data were normalized to HPRT expression in each sample and are presented as the mean ± SEM with six mice per group pooled from two independent experiments. Double asterisks indicate a statistically significant difference when compared with mice vaccinated with the hN’-neu DNA vaccine alone (p < 0.05). Asterisk indicates a statistically significant difference when compared with mice vaccinated with the control vector (p < 0.001)