Fig. 2. CD8⁺ T_RM driven exacerbation of LIP is CD4⁺ T cell independent.

(A) CD4⁺ T cell frequencies (Left) and absolute numbers (Middle) within spleen and gingiva of naïve C57BL/6J mice treated two days earlier with 200 μg of GK1.5 antibody (green circles), and representative flow cytometry (Right). Red numbers indicate average fold decrease comparing No Tx (no treatment) and GK1.5 treated mice. N = Four mice per group. (B) Experimental design. Representative flow cytometry plots (Left) and enumeration of CD4⁺ T cells (Right) in (C) spleens and (D) tongues of gp33/LIP or SIIN/LIP mice ± GK1.5 antibody treatment. (E) Quantification of OT-I T cells within tongues of mice from the indicated treatment groups seven days post-LIP. (F) Representative flow cytometry plots showing DC subsets within cLNs from mice treated as indicated. (G) Quantification of DC subsets within day seven LIP cLNs from mice of the indicated treatment groups, as gated in E. Data in D-G represents three–five mice per group. (H) Quantification of total bone within predefined coordinates surrounding the non-ligated second molar (Ref.; Left) and ligated second molar (Target; Middle), and their difference (Change; Right). (I) Representative maxilla iso-surfaces from gp33/LIP (Left) and SIIN/LIP (Right) mice treated with GK1.5 antibody. Shaded regions highlight superficial differences between groups. (J) Alveolar bone loss, normalized to gp33/LIP mice treated with isotype-control antibody from two independent experiments with two-five mice per group per experiment. Scale bars in all graphs represent mean ± SEM. Dots in A, C, D, E, H, and J represent individual mice. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; ****, P < 0.0001 as determined by an unpaired Student’s t test between the relevant comparisons.