Figure 6. T cells display increased transcription and expression of TLR2 following B. burgdorferi infection.

Mice were infected with B. burgdorferi, after which popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes were collected for analysis of T cells and TLR2 expression. (A) CD3⁺CD4⁺, CD3⁺CD8⁺, and CD19⁺ cells were sorted from popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes of IL-10^−/− mice using FACS sorting (BD FACSAria) 2 weeks post-infection. Tlr2 transcripts were measured in each cell population by qRT-PCR and normalized to 1,000 β-actin. (B) Quantification of the total number of CD3⁺CD4⁺TLR2⁺ and CD3⁺CD8⁺TLR2⁺ cells from IL-10^−/− were determined by flow cytometry 4 weeks post-infection. (C and D) IL-10^−/− mice were sacrificed at 1 week time intervals and analyzed by flow cytometry for TLR2 expression on CD3⁺CD4⁺ T cells (C) and CD3⁺CD8⁺ T cells (D). (E–F) SMARTA/TCRα^−/−/IL-10^−/− mice were infected with B. burgdorferi for 4 weeks, after which popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes were collected for analysis of T cells and TLR2 expression. (E) Numbers in upper left corner of flow plots are %TLR2⁺ cells. (F) The frequency and total number of CD3⁺CD4⁺TLR2⁺ cells were determined by flow cytometry. (G–H) OT-I/Rag2^−/−/IL-10^−/− mice were infected with B. burgdorferi for 4 weeks, after which popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes were collected for analysis of T cells and TLR2 expression. (G) Numbers in upper left corner of flow plots are %TLR2⁺ cells. (H) Quantification of the frequency and total number of CD3⁺CD8⁺TLR2⁺ cells were determined by flow cytometry. Error bars indicate the SEM (n≥3 per group). Significant differences between infected and uninfected groups by Student’s t-test are indicated (*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 ****p<0.0001). Data are representative of two independent experiments.