Figure 4.

Injection in mice of wt Nef-expressing DNA vector fails to elicit Nef-specific CD8⁺ T-cell immune response.

Notes: C57 Bl/6 mice (four per group) were inoculated intramuscularly two times with DNA vectors expressing wt Nef, Nef^mut, or empty vector, and sacrificed 10 days after the last immunization. Splenocytes were then cultured overnight in triplicate in IFN-γ Elispot microwells in the absence or presence of either unrelated or Nef-specific nonamers. As control, cells were incubated with 5 ng/mL of PMA and 500 ng/mL of ionomycin. Shown are the mean of SFU/10⁵ cells from a representative of two independent experiments.

Abbreviations: PMA, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate; SFU, spot-forming unit; wt, wild type.