Figure 5. Mice maternally exposed to BPA mount an equivalent adaptive immune response to infection with influenza virus.

Adult offspring of the treated dams were infected with influenza virus (HKx31). (A) Mice were sacrificed 9 days post-infection and immune cells were isolated from MLNs and lungs and stained with MHC class I-restricted tetramers and monoclonal antibodies, as described in the Material and Methods section. The number of CD3⁺CD8⁺ T cells (denoted as CD8⁺), CD3⁺CD8⁺CD44^hiCD62L^lo cytotoxic effector CD8 T cells (denoted as CTLe), D^b/PA_224–233 and D^b/NP_366–374 specific CD8 T-cells (denoted as D^b/PA⁺ and D^b/NP⁺, respectively) were measured by flow cytometry. (B) Mice were sacrificed 7 or 9 days post-infection and immune cells were isolated from lungs and MLNs. The numbers of CD3⁺CD4⁺CD25⁺FoxP3⁺ T cells (T_reg) were measured by flow cytometry. (C) A separate group of infected developmentally exposed mice were euthanized 14 days p.i., and blood was collected. The average amount of influenza virus-specific total IgG as well as virus-specific IgG₁ and IgG_2a isotypes in plasma were measured using ELISA. Data shown are from adult female offspring; male offspring were also examined and findings were similar (data not shown). All data represent the mean (±SEM) of the total number of the specified cell types recovered from each organ (A-B) or from blood (C) of individual mice (n≥5/group/time point).