Figure 2. Elevated number of Spt-GCs in B6.Sle1b mice.

(A) Flow cytometric analysis was performed on splenocytes obtained from sex matched, 6–9 month old B6 and B6.Sle1b mice for spontaneous GCs (Spt-GCs). The percentage of B220⁺ΠNA^hiFas^hi GC B cells are shown in rectangular gates (left panel) and in scatter plots (right panel). (B) In a similar analysis as in (A), splenocytes obtained from 5 to 6 week old SRBC-immunized B6 and B6.Sle1b mice were analyzed 12 days post-immunization to show the percentage of B220⁺PNA^hiFas^hi GC B cells in these mice. The flow cytometry plots on the left are representative images from each group while the scatter plots on the right showing the range of the GC B cell percentages. The blue dots represent male mice and the red dots represent female mice (right panel, B). Each circle represents an individual mouse and horizontal bars represent the mean values. Statistical analysis was performed as described in Materials and Methods. (C) Spleen sections obtained from 6–9 month old female B6 and B6.Sle1b mice were stained with anti-IgD (blue) and PNA (red). (D) Similar analysis as in (C) was performed on spleen sections obtained from SRBC-immunized 5 to 6 week old female B6 (n=6) and B6.Sle1b (n=6) mice 12 days post immunization. Original magnification of the images was 100×. The data shown in (C and D) represent at least 5 mice of each genotype.