Figure 3. Infection with a high and lethal dose of VACV-Ova resulted in increased apoptosis in naïve and activated CD4⁺ cells in the spleen.

C57BL/6 mice were infected i.n. with low (5×10²), high (5×10⁴), or lethal (5×10⁵) dose of VACV-Ova or were mock-infected (PBS) and spleens harvested at day 7. A) Representative flow cytometric data showing active caspase 3 staining of CD44^lo and CD44^hi cells following gating on CD4⁺ T cells. Numbers above the dot plot are the percentage of cells in each quadrant. The numbers in the quadrants are the percentage of CD44^lo (upper left) or active CD44^hi (upper right) cells that are active caspase 3⁺ positive. B) Averaged data showing the percent of CD44^lo or CD44^hi CD4⁺ T cells staining positive for active caspase 3. * = significant increase, p<0.05; # = significant decrease, p<0.05.