Figure 2. Prenatal infection-induced fetal resorption requires maternal CD8⁺ T cells with fetal specificity.

(A) Percentage of resorbed fetuses and number of live pups 5 days after L. monocytogenes ΔactA or L. monocytogenes ΔactA OVA infection (each 10⁷ CFU) initiated midgestation (E11.5) among P14 or OT-1 TCR transgenic mice during allogeneic pregnancies after mating with BALB/c or BALB/c-OVA males. Ten days before mating, P14 and OT-1 TCR transgenic mice maintained on a RAG2-deficient background were reconstituted with polyclonal CD4⁺ T and B cells from splenocytes of CD8α-deficient mice. (B) Representative FACS plots and composite data showing the percentage IFN-γ production after PMA/ionomycin stimulation among maternal CD8⁺ splenocytes recovered 5 days after L. monocytogenes ΔactA or L. monocytogenes ΔactA OVA infection (each 10⁷ CFU) for the mice described in A. Each symbol indicates the data from a single mouse, and these results, containing 6–8 mice per group, are representative of 3 independent experiments, each with similar results. Error bars represent mean ± 1 SEM.