Figure 7.

Adhesiveness of splenocytes for HEV in PLN is altered by ovarian steroid hormones (A) and by pregnancy to levels observed in response to fever range hyperthermia (B). Splenic lymphocytes were collected from ovariectomized mice receiving the hormone treatments outlined in Fig. 1, from pregnant mice or from virgin (V) mice and tested for adhesion to PLN from virgin mice. Mel-14 mAb specific for murine L-selectin were included in assays as indicated. In (B), splenocytes from virgin mice were incubated at 37°C or 40°C for 6 hours prior to use in the adhesion assay. Data are the mean ± SD of triplicate counts and arerepresentative of > 5 independent experiments. † Indicates significant difference from the virgin, oil placebo treatment, normothermal (37°C) control groups (p<0.05, Student’s t test).

*Function-blocking mAb specific for murine L-selectin (Mel-14) significantly reduced adhesion compared with untreated controls (p<0.001 using Student’s t test).