Figure 3.
The antimalaria activity of α-GalCer does not require IL-12 or NK cells, whereas IL-12 displays its antimalaria activity in CD1−/− mice. (A) Five IL-12-deficient (IL-12p40−/−) and WT mice on a BALB/c background were injected i.p. with a single dose (10 ng, 100 ng, or 1 μg) of α-GalCer in 0.025% polysorbate-20 or PBS. (B) Vα14/Vβ8.2 transgenic mice on a RAG-1−/− C57BL/6 background (RAG−/−Vα14Vβ8.2tg) and WT controls were injected i.p. with 1 μg of α-GalCer. (C) Five CD1-deficient and WT mice on the C57BL/6 background were injected i.p. with 0.3 μg of rIL-12. Two days (A and B) or one day (C) later, the mice were challenged with 1 × 105 P. yoelii sporozoites, and the parasite burden in the liver was assessed as in the legend of Fig. 1. The results represent one of two similar experiments.