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. 2004 Dec;78(23):13163–13172. doi: 10.1128/JVI.78.23.13163-13172.2004

FIG. 1.

FIG. 1.

Antigen-specific CD8+ responses in splenocytes from female and male BALB/c mice following various prime-boost regimens. Female and male mice were primed with either DNA (50 μg) i.m., peptide (50 μg) with cholera toxin i.n., or rMVA (107 PFU) i.d. All animals were boosted with rMVA (107 PFU) i.d. (see Materials and Methods for immunization details). Spleens were removed 20 days after the rMVA boosting and assayed for the frequency of P18 tetramer-specific CD8+ splenocytes (A) and antigen-specific IFN-γ-secreting cells (B) by ELISpot. (A) When evaluated by tetramer analysis, significant differences were observed between the genders in animals primed with DNA and boosted with rMVA (41 females and 23 males; P = 0.05) and animals primed with peptide and boosted with rMVA (86 females and 60 males; P = 0.05). Other significant differences were observed in females (n = 40) and males (n = 24) primed with rMVA and boosted with rMVA; their tetramer responses were significantly greater than any other immunization regimen (P = 0.05). Females in the DNA-rMVA, peptide-rMVA, and rMVA-rMVA regimes had significantly increased tetramer responses when compared to female mice in the no prime-rMVA group (P = 0.05). Only males primed and boosted with rMVA showed an increased frequency of tetramer-specific responses when compared to the no prime-rMVA immunization group (P = 0.05). (B) Gender differences were observed in mice primed with peptide and boosted with rMVA (86 female mice and 60 male mice; P = 0.05). Other significant differences were detected in females primed with peptide and boosted with rMVA (86 mice) or primed with rMVA and boosted with rMVA (40 mice); these groups had a significantly higher frequency of IFN-γ SFCs than did females receiving only one immunization of rMVA (47 mice) (P = 0.05). Males primed with rMVA and boosted with rMVA (24 mice) had a significantly higher frequency of IFN-γ SFCs than did males primed with peptide and boosted with rMVA (60 mice) or males receiving only one immunization of rMVA (38 mice) (P = 0.05).