Fig. 1.

Early activation of antigen-specific cells under conditions of tolerance or autoimmunity. 1 × 10⁶ CD4⁺ T cells were purified from DO11.10 Rag^−/− mice and adoptively transferred i.v. into WT BALB/c, sOVA-Tg, and sOVA-Tg/Rag^−/− recipients. At the indicated time points posttransfer, cells were harvested for analysis. (A) Representative FACS plots of CD4⁺ T cells that were isolated and restimulated for 18 h with OVA-pulsed dendritic cells for intracellular staining of IL-17A and IFNγ. (B) Cumulative data for the four experiments shown in A. (C) Lymph node cells were stained directly ex vivo for the activation markers CD44 and CD25. Data are representative of three individual experiments. (D) Spleen cells were assayed for Ki67 expression. Data are representative of three comparable experiments. All data in FACS plots are gated on donor CD4⁺KJ-126⁺ donor cells.