Fig. 4.
A, Long-term treatment of B10.TCRδ−/− mice with anti-TCRαβ monoclonal antibody depletes 98–99% of splenic αβ TCRs. Each panel shows flow cytometric profiles of nylon-wool purified spleen T cells from three B10.TCRδ−/− individual females. Histograms with thick lines show results using an anti-CD3 mAb to stain cells from each individual; the thin line histograms show unstained cells as a negative control. An was chosen to detect the αβ TCR because it would not be inhibited by any remaining anti-TCRαβ antibody which might still be bound to the cells. Left panel - Results from mice treated with anti-TCRαβ monoclonal antibody weekly for 12 weeks. Spleens were taken 3 days after the final antibody treatment, and the cells stained with anti-CD3 antibody to reveal any remaining αβ TCR+ cells. Right panel - Examples of spleen T cells from three B10.TCRδ−/− individual females sham-treated weekly at the same time with hamster IgG, prepared and stained in the same way. B, the average number of αβ T cells obtained from the spleen of each mouse shown in panel A was calculated based on the percentages that expressed CD4 or CD8.