Fig 6. CCL2 produced from infiltrated leukocytes derived from HSC lineage plays a dominant role in mucosal recruitment of CD11b⁺Ly-6C^hi monocytes.

BM cells from BL/6 (WT) or CCL2 KO (KO) mice were grafted to lethally irradiated BL/6 or CCL2 KO recipient mice, which were infected i.vag. with HSV-1. (A,B) CD11b⁺Ly-6C^hi infiltration of infected recipients in vaginal tract. Cells were prepared from the vaginal tract by collagenase digestion at 24 h pi and subcellular proportions of CD11b⁺Ly-6C^hi and CD11b⁺Ly-6G^hi leukocytes were determined using flow cytometric analysis. (C,D) Frequency and absolute number of infiltrated NK cells in vaginal tract of the recipients. Cells prepared from the vaginal tract of the recipients were used to analyze the frequency (C) and total number (D) of CD3⁻NK1.1⁺DX5⁺ NK cells at 48 h pi. (E) Viral titers in vaginal lavages. Viral titers in vaginal lavages collected at 48 h pi were determined by plaque assay. (F) Chemokine secretion in vaginal lavages of the recipients. The levels of chemokine proteins were determined by CBA using vaginal lavages at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h pi. Values in dot-plots represent the average percentages of each population derived from four independent samples, and data in graphs represent the average ± SD of values derived from three individual experiments (n = 4–5). *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01; ***, p<0.001 compared with the level of the indicated group.