Figure 1. Mice lacking ERAP1 exhibit drastically increased activation of NK and NKT cells in the liver in response to rEA stimuli.

C57BL/6 WT and ERAP1-KO mice were either mock (PBS) injected or intraperitoneally injected with 100 ng/mouse of rEA protein. Liver lymphocytes were prepared at 6 hpi, processed, stained for expression of surface markers (intracellular staining was performed for IFNγ), and analyzed by FACS as described in Materials and Methods. (A, B) CD69 activation and (C, D) IFNγ release by NK cells (A, C) and NKT cells (B, D) are shown. Bars represent mean ± SEM. Representative plots are shown. Statistical analysis was completed using a one-way ANOVA with a Student-Newman-Keuls post-hoc test. n = 4 for all groups of mice. *, ** - indicate values, statistically different from those in mock-injected mice, p<0.05, p<0.001, respectively.