Figure 2. Reduction in IL-4Rα expression correlates with magnitude of anti-viral effector responses on CD8⁺ T cells.

Unimmunized or VV-WR infected BALB/c WT mice (n = 4 per group) were sacrificed at the indicated time points and splenocytes used for flow cytometry analysis or for ICS following A52_75–83 or F2_26–34 in vitro peptide stimulation of splenocytes as described in the materials and methods. A and B, The mean (n = 4) percentage of CD8⁺ splenocytes (A) and the total number of CD8⁺ splenocytes (B) from VV-WR infected mice that expressed GzmB or IFN-γ following in vitro peptide stimulation. C, The kinetics of the mean (n = 4) net fold reduction in cell surface expression of IL-4Rα on gated CD8⁺ splenocytes from VV-WR infected mice relative to unimmunized mice. Net fold reduction was calculated using MFI values as described in the materials and methods. The data shown are representative of at least two independent experiments and the error bars depict the SEM.