Fig 6. LysMcre;Arg1^F/F mice have significantly more virus-specific CD8⁺ T cells in inflamed muscle tissue than WT mice at 10 dpi.

Three-to-four week-old WT and LysMcre;Arg1^F/F mice were inoculated with 10³ PFU of WT RRV (n = 3) or recombinant RRV-LCMV (n = 18 for WT mice; n = 19 for LysMcre;Arg1^F/F mice). At 10 dpi, leukocytes from (A-E) spleens and (F-J) quadriceps muscles (following enzymatic digestion) were isolated for FACS analysis of virus-specific CD8⁺ T cells. Muscle-infiltrating leukocytes from a mouse inoculated with WT RRV was used as a control for gp33 tetramer staining. (A, F) Representative flow plots demonstrating the gating strategy to identify gp33⁺CD8⁺CD4^- T cells in the spleen (A) and muscle (F) tissue at 10 dpi. Frequency (B, G) and total number (C, H) of CD8⁺CD4^- T cells in the spleen (B, C) and muscle (G, H) tissue of WT RRV-inoculated mice, RRV-LCMV-inoculated WT mice, and RRV-LCMV-inoculated LysMcre;Arg1^F/F mice at 10 dpi. Frequency (D, I) and total number (E, J) of gp33⁺CD8⁺CD4^- T cells in the spleen (D, E) and muscle (I, J) tissue of WT RRV-inoculated mice, RRV-LCMV-inoculated WT mice, and RRV-LCMV-inoculated LysMcre;Arg1^F/F mice at 10 dpi. Data are represented as the arithmetic mean ± SEM and combined from five independent experiments. *** P < 0.001 as determined by two-tailed, unpaired t-tests with or without Welch’s correction (WT versus LysMcre;Arg1^F/F).