Fig. 4.

Immunization with BCG and Lactoferrin promotes increased IFN-γ production and high numbers of BCG antigen-specific CD4+ cells. Splenocytes from naïve mice, or from mice 8 weeks after immunization with BCG or BCG admixed with Lactoferrin, were stimulated in vitro with BCG antigens. IFN-γ production was measured by ELISA (top), expressed as average values with standard deviation for 6 mice (* P < 0.05). The same populations were restimulated in vitro with BCG antigens; flow cytometric analysis and intracellular staining (bottom) revealed increases in numbers of IFN-γ producing CD4+ cells in the BCG-Lactoferrin immunized population (right), compared to naïve (left) or BCG alone (middle) immunized groups. Representative flow data shown for splenocytes from four stimulated mice per group