FIG. 6.
Enhanced antigen-specific responses in female BALB/c mice are dependent upon the route of peptide delivery. Groups of female and male BALB/c mice were immunized i.n. with 50 μg of peptide plus 1 μg of cholera toxin or immunized s.c. with 50 μg of peptide plus 25 μg of RC-529. Both groups were boosted with 107 PFU of rMVA i.d. Spleens were removed and assayed for the frequency of IFN-γ-producing cells by the ELISpot assay. Each bar is representative of the mean and standard error of results with 10 mice. P values were 0.05 when females primed with peptide i.n. and boosted with rMVA were compared to male mice primed i.n. with peptide and boosted with rMVA. When female and male mice immunized with peptide-rMVA s.c. were compared by ANOVA or Student's t test, there was no difference in the number of IFN-γ SFCs (P values were not significant and P = 0.17, respectively).