FIG. 5.

Early recruitment followed by depletion of CD4⁺ cells in the footpad during infection with highly virulent M. ulcerans. Mice were subcutaneously infected in the footpad with 3 × 10⁵ AFB of M. ulcerans 5114 (○ or white bars) or 98-912 (• or black bars). (A to C) At specific time points, RNA was extracted from a single cell suspension of the footpad. The presence of specific mRNAs for CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 were determined by real-time PCR. The data points represent the means ± the SEM (n = 5) for each time point. The results are from one experiment representative of two separate experiments (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001). (D and E) Tissue sections of the footpad were stained with DAPI (D) and anti-CD4 (E). The average number of DAPI⁺ or CD4⁺ cells per footpad was determined by using a 40× objective lens. The data points represent the means ± the SEM (n = 4). The results are from one experiment representative of two independent experiments.