Figure 7. NK cells mediate early loss of highly activated CD8⁺ T cells in 2B4-KO mice in a perforin-dependent manner.

(A) At day 4 of LCMV clone 13 infection, splenocytes (n = 4/group) were gated on Thy 1.2-expressing cells, and the proportion of CD8α⁺ T cells expressing CD11c was determined. The Thy1.2⁺CD8α⁺CD11c⁺ events were uniformly CD8β⁺, CD3ε-expressing, and CD44^hi. Right: Proportion of CD44^hiCD43(1B11)⁺ events among gated CD8αβ⁺ T cells. Numbers represent mean (±SD) proportion of gated events. Total numbers (mean ± SEM) of Thy1.2⁺CD11c⁺CD8α⁺ cells were determined in the spleens (B) as well as iLNs (C) of isotype-treated or anti-NK1.1–treated WT and 2B4-KO mice (n = 5/group), as well as in the spleens (D) of similarly treated Prf1-KO and 2B4/Prf1-KO (n = 3–4/group) mice. **P < 0.01 (2-tailed unpaired Student’s t test). Data are from 1 of 3 experiments with similar results.