Fig. 1.

Flow cytometric analysis of T cell populations. (A) γδ T cells are increased in mice fed with high fat diet. Percentages of γδ cells (left) are significantly higher while αβ cells (right) are significantly lower in ApoE^−/− mice fed a high fat Western diet. Splenocytes were isolated from age- and gender-matched ApoE^−/− mice fed a normal chow or Western diet for 2 weeks. Results are shown in mean ± SEM. N = 5–6 per group. (B)–(C) T cell populations are normal except the absence of gd T cells in the aorta of TCRδ^−/−ApoE^−/− mice fed Western diet. Age- and gender-matched ApoE^−/− and TCRδ^−/−ApoE^−/− mice were fed Western diet for 10 weeks. After 10 weeks, aortas were isolated, digested, and analyzed by flow cytometry. (B) γδ T cells are absent in TCRδ^−/−ApoE^−/− mice. (C) Numbers of CD3⁺, CD4⁺, and CD8⁺ T cells are similar in ApoE^−/− and TCRδ^−/−ApoE^−/− mice. Representative cytometric plots are shown on the left and averaged cell numbers are shown on the right. Results are shown in individual dots and mean ± SEM. N = 6 per group. ***P < 0.001.