Figure 5. Enhanced DC activation and migration to dLNs after L. major infection in Mincle-deficient mice.

(A) IFN-γ in supernatants of T cells from healed L. major-infected mice after co-culture for 3 d with CD11c⁺ cells recovered from the dLNs of WT and Clec4e^-/- mice 2 d p.i. Data are arithmetic means + SEM from two independent experiments (n=6). (B) Left panels: Representative histograms of CD40, CD86 and CCR7 staining in MoDCs (CD11b⁺Ly6C⁺CD11c⁺MHCII⁺ gated cells) from ears of infected mice. Right panels: Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD40, CD86 and CCR7 expression on MoDCs. (C) Representative dot plots (Upper) and frequencies (Lower) of CD11c- and CD40-positive cells in dLNs from uninfected mice or 24 h after L. major infection in the ear. (D) Ears of mice inoculated with PBS in the left ear and L. major parasites (10⁵) in the right ear were FITC painted (see Methods) and dLNs were harvested 24h later. Left : Representative plots of dLN cells gated for CD11c and stained with anti-CD40 and FITC. Right: frequencies of FITC⁺ CD11c⁺ dLN cells. (B-D) Individual data and arithmetic means corresponding to a representative experiment of two (B) or three (C, D) performed. (A-D) * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001 (Student’s t test).