Table 1.

Increased survival of LCMV-specific Bim^−/− T cells

T cells	Mice	Survival in vitroa)	Survival in vivob)
		% alive at 24 h	Day 7	Day 14
I-Abgp61 sp.	Bim+/+	32.0 ± 8.5%	49.1 ± 5.4%	1.6 ± 2.0%
	Bim−/−	58.9 ± 11.7%*	76.3 ± 5.5%**	14.0 ± 3.6%*
Dbnp396 sp.	Bim+/+	25.2 ± 4.3%	35.1 ± 4.9%	6.8 ± 1.3%
	Bim−/−	76.9 ± 4.2%**	66.5 ± 4.8%**	17.3 ± 7.8%
Dbgp33 sp.	Bim+/+	27.9 ± 4.5%	62.3 ± 7.9%	11.7 ± 0.6%
	Bim−/−	87.1 ± 6.6%**	80.2 ± 4.5%*	34.5% ±13.0%

^a)To assess survival in vitro, spleen cells from Bim^+/+ or Bim^−/− LCMV-infected mice were cultured for 24 h and analyzed for death. Data show the percentage of tetramer⁺ T cells alive ± SD.

^b)To assess survival in vivo, purified T cells from the above LCMV-infected Bim^+/+ or Bim^−/− mice were transferred into Ly5.1 congenic recipient mice. Donor tetramer⁺Ly5.2⁺CD4⁺ or CD8⁺ T cells were quantified in the spleen of recipient mice on days 1, 7 and 14 after transfer. On day 1, recipients of either Bim^+/+ or Bim^−/− T cells had similar numbers of CD8⁺ Ly5.2⁺ tetramer⁺ cells, but recipients of Bim^+/+ cells had more CD4⁺Ly5.2⁺ tetramer⁺ cells compared to Bim^−/− recipients. Data show the percent (± SD) of donor (Ly5.2⁺) tetramer⁺ T cells remaining in recipient mice relative to the number of donor cells in recipients at day 1. Statistically significant differences were observed between Bim^+/+ and Bim^−/− mice (*denotes p<0.05, **denotes p<0.001, Student's two-sample t-test).