Figure 2.

Changes in TBI (A) and T₄ (B) levels after three vs. two immunizations. Aire −/−, +/+, and +/+ mice were untreated (no Pre-Tx) before A-subunit Ad immunization (A and B, left section) or depleted of Treg using antibodies (see Materials and Methods) before immunization (A and B, right section). The change in TBI or T₄ (delta) was calculated as the difference between the values for each individual animal after three immunizations minus the value after two immunizations. Values are presented as the mean + sem. The number of mice in each group is: untreated Aire+/+ (n = 9), Aire +/+ (n = 10), and Aire −/− (n = 10); and Treg-depleted Aire+/+ (n = 14), Aire+/− (n = 18), and Aire −/− (n = 11). Values are significantly different: *, P < 0.001 (rank sum) (A); **, P = 0.006 (t test) (A); #, P = 0.046 (B); *, P = 0.019 (B) (t tests).