Figure 1. Depletion of CD301b+ DCs leads to enhanced antibody responses.
(a,b) WT and Mgl2-DTR mice were injected i.p. with 0.5 µg DT on days −1, +1 and +3. Mice were immunized with 50 µg papain in 20 µl phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) with or without (No OVA at 1°) 5 µg OVA in the footpad. On day 14, OVA (50 µg in 100 µl PBS) was injected retro-orbitally without adjuvant. Sera were harvested on days −1, +14 and +21. OVA-specific antibody titers were detected by ELISA. Bars indicate mean ± S.E.M. calculated from three (WT and Mgl2-DTR) or two (No OVA at 1°) individual mice. Representative data from three independent experiments are shown. (c,d) Mgl2-DTR mice were treated with DT and immunized with 5 µg OVA and 50 µg papain in the footpad as in a (DT Day −1/+2). Alternatively, WT or Mgl2-DTR mice were immunized with OVA and papain on day 0, then treated with DT on days five and eight (DT Day +5/+8). All mice received a boost immunization with OVA in PBS on day 14. Sera were collected in two independent experiments from total of 5–6 mice per group. (e,f) Mgl2-DTR mice were treated i.p. with DT or PBS and painted with whole cell lysates of house dust mite (HDM) for three times as shown in e. HDM-specific antibody titers were tested by ELISA against the whole cell HDM lysates (f). Data were collected from five animals in each group and are representative of two independent experiments. Bars indicate mean ± S.E.M. n.s., not significant, *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 by two-tailed Student’s t-test. All statistics indicate comparison to the WT or undepleted control shown in each panel.