Fig 7. Similar antigen presentation capacity of BMDCs from WT and CatB^-/- mice.

WT and CatB^-/- were infected subcutaneously with 3x10⁶ stationary phase promastigotes of L. major in the footpads. On days 21 and 28, lymph nodes were harvested and whole cells or purified CD4 cells from these were co-cultured overnight with WT or CatB^-/- BMDCs that were non-stimulated as control or activated by PMA, killed or live L. major. Supernatants were harvested for cytokine determination by specific ELISA and unadherent cells were harvested for intracellular cytokine staining by FACS. (A-B) IFNγ levels secreted by lymph node (dLNs) cells and (C-D) percentage of IFNγ+ cells gated on CD4+ cells in these dLNs from L. major-infected WT (A, C) or CatB^-/- (B, D) mice after co-culture with WT (filled bars) or CatB^-/- (empty bars) BMDCs. (E-F) IFNγ levels secreted by CD4+ cells and (G-H) percentage of IFNγ+ cells gated on CD4+ cells from purified CD4+ cells of L. major-infected WT (E, G) or CatB^-/- (F, H) mice that were co-cultured with WT (filled bars) or CatB^-/- (empty bars) BMDCs. Data depicted represent the mean and SEM of at least 3 independent experiments with n ≥ 4 donor mice/group.