Figure 7. Adoptive transfer CD4⁺CCR5⁺CD25⁻ T cells increases atherosclerosis.

A, Sudan IV stained aortas (whole aorta and thoracic aorta) from Ccr5^−/−Apoe^−/− mice that received 2×10⁵ enriched CCR5Teff, Treg or Teff isolated from paLNs of Cd45.1Apoe^−/− mice on WD for 5 month or saline (control) i.v. 12 weeks before analysis. B, Quantification of plaque area as % of aortic surface. n=5, * p<0.05, t-test. C and D, IHC of aorta root sections of the recipients that received CCR5Teff (C) or saline (D) stained with CCR5 (green) and CD3 (green). The CCR5⁺CD3⁺ T cells were indicated by arrows. E, Flow cytometry analysis of the carotid arteries, blood, paLNs and spleen of the Ccr5^−/−Apoe^−/− recipient mice that received 2×10⁵ CCR5Teff or saline. The CD45.1⁺ TCRβ⁺ donor T cells were gated from live CD45⁺ singlets TCRβ⁺. Percent CD45.1⁺ among all TCRβ⁺ cells indicated above gate. n=5, Mean±SE, t-test, *p<0.05. F, CCR5Teff (CCR5⁺), conventional Tregs (Treg) and effector T cells (Teff) were sorted directly into PMA /ionomycin (8,000 to 25,000 cells/well) and cytokine secretion was measured by cytometric bead array and expressed as ng/ml per million cells. n=4, Mean±SE, t-test, *p<0.05 CCR5⁺ vs. Treg, # p<0.05 Teff vs. Treg.