Figure 1.

IL-27Rα^−/− CD4⁺CD45RB^high T cells failed to induce colitis. CD4⁺CD45RB^high T cells isolated from WT or IL-27Rα^−/− spleens were transferred to Rag1^−/− mice. The analyses of the recipients at 8 weeks (A, B) and 4 weeks (C, D) post transfer are shown. (A) The percentage bodyweight at each time point compared to day 0. Data from 8 recipients of WT T cells (filled circles) and 7 recipients of IL-27Rα^−/− T cells (open circles), combined from two independent experiments, are shown. (B) Histological scores of specimens obtained from the large intestine from the same transfers as in (A). Each dot represents an average score from 4 different parts of the large intestine from a single recipient (maximum score =14). Horizontal lines indicate the mean. * P < 0.001 (two-tailed Student’s t-test). (C) Representative dot plot analyses detecting TCRβ⁺ cells in the MLN (top) and large intestine (bottom) from recipients of either WT (left) or IL-27Rα^−/− (right) donor cells. Numbers in each plot represent the percentage of TCRβ⁺ side scatter low (SSC^low) cells from the total cells recovered. (D) Average total cell and T lymphocyte numbers in MLN and large intestine. The CD4⁺TCRβ⁺ cell numbers were calculated from the total cell count multiplied by the percentage of T lymphocytes, obtained from flow cytometry analyses. Averages from 4 recipients each transferred with WT or IL-27Rα^−/− CD4⁺CD45RB^high donor cells are shown (error bars; s.d.). *P<0.005 (two-tailed Student’s t-test).