Figure 4. The BM PC compartment is diminished in the absence of BM-derived CD73.

(A) Schematic of experimental design. Chimeric animals were established from adoptive transfer of WT or CD73KO donor BM into irradiated WT or CD73KO hosts. Donor and hosts were allotypically distinct (CD45.1 and CD45.2) in all chimeric combinations except the CD73KO donor/CD73KO host controls. 6-weeks post BM transfer, chimeric animals were immunized i.p. with NP-CGG in alum, and 11-weeks later, BM PCs were enumerated by ELISpot. Extent of chimerism was evaluated by flow cytometry analysis of splenocytes and is detailed in Figure S4 and in the text; 1–3 million events were collected per sample. (B) Evaluation of chimeric mice 11-weeks post-immunization. Frequency of IgG₁ NP-specific PCs per million BM cells, determined by ELISpot analysis. Each point represents an individual mouse. Data shown are pooled from 6 (WT into WT), 5 (KO into WT) and 1 (WT into KO and KO into KO) individual experiments. Mean values are depicted by heavy horizontal lines. * indicates Student's t-test p values of <0.05.