Fig. 2.

Variability in CD8 T cell islet specificities among individual mice. (a) Significant variability in reactivity against two immunodominant CD8 T cell epitopes within six individual experiments using 10-week-old mice. Each experiment represents pooled expanded islet CD8 T cell populations from two mice. (b) At 16 weeks of age, variability remains, although reactivity can always be found against both epitopes. The response against islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit related protein (IGRP) 228–236 is dominant at this stage. Rectangles correspond with images on right taken from individual wells. These data are derived from positive controls included in seven experiments performed to screen the peptide library and two independent preparatory experiments using 10-week-old mice. Values equal to 150 represent spot counts ≥ 150 due to limitations on counting accuracy above that value.