Figure 1. Early T_reg depletion accelerates clearance of low dose T. muris infection.

(A) Schematic of the Early (left) versus Late (right) DT treatment regimens for depletion of T_regs following low dose T. muris infection. Mice were infected via oral gavage with 30 embryonated T. muris eggs on day 0, DT was administered five times every other day using one of the two approaches (Early DT: d0–d8 or Late DT: d9–d17), and mice analyzed at d35.

(B) Representative flow cytometric plots depicting Foxp3⁺ T_reg depletion and recovery following treatment with DT (+DT) or PBS (−DT). MLN and NDLN cells isolated from infected Foxp3^DTR-GFP mice, and surface stained for CD4 and intracellular Foxp3. Cells gated on CD4⁺ T cells and analyzed for percentage of GFP⁺Foxp3⁺ T_regs one-week after the last DT treatment (left) and at the time of analysis, d35 (right).

(C) T_reg recovery assessed by the percentages of GFP⁺Foxp3⁺ T_regs at day 35 for Early DT (left) and Late DT (right) treatment approaches. Data averaged from two independent experiments (n=8–10 mice per group).

(D) Total worm burden at day 35 from the cecum of mice infected with low dose T. muris as in (A) and treated with Early and Late DT approaches. Each data point on the scatter plots represents an individual mouse with mean indicated. Data averaged from 4 independent experiments for Early DT approach (n=20–22 mice per group) and 3 independent experiments for Late DT approach (n=12–15 mice per group).

*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, NS, not significant (Unpaired Student’s t-test).