Figure 6.

Effects of TLR3 deficiency on hepatic Vα14iNKT cell cytokine production in response to poly I:C application. TLR3-deficient mice and B6129SF2/J wild-type (WT) mice were treated with poly I:C for 16 hours for the isolation and identification of hepatic Vα14iNKT cells by FACS. Intracellular staining was performed on hepatic Vα14iNKT cells (after cell permeabilization) using fluorochrome-labeled cytokine antibodies (see Materials and Methods) to determine the percentage and absolute numbers of both IFN-γ expressing Vα14iNKT cells (A and B) as well as TNF-producing Vα14iNKT cells (C and D). The dotted line in C and D represents the value in wild-type mice treated with vehicle. All results are presented as means ± SEM with three to four mice per group from two independent experiments. *P ≤ 0.05 versus wild-type mice.