Figure 3.

Accumulation of dendritic cells (DCs) in different organs [liver, spleen, and liver-draining lymph nodes (LNs)] in response to radiation-attenuated sporozoites (RAS) or infectious sporozoites (Inf. Spz) inoculation. (A) C57BL/6 mice were inoculated with 10K RAS or Inf. Spz and mice sacrificed 72 h postinoculation. (B) Gating strategy for characterizing DCs, used to define CD11c⁺CD11b⁻CD8α⁺ DCs within the mononuclear cells (MNCs). Murine DC subsets were differentiated via expression of CD8α on CD11c⁺CD11b⁻ cells from liver, spleen, and liver-draining LN. The FACS plot is a representation from the liver. (C) Accumulation of CD8α⁺ DCs in liver and lymphoid organs. The graphs present the percent cells out of total MNCs. Each bar shown in graph is mean of four mice per group. *p < 0.05, relative to corresponding RAS inoculated group. (D) Measurement of the expression of chemokine ligands (CCL20 and CCL21) in RAS or Inf. Spz inoculated mice through qPCR. The expression of β-actin gene in individual sample was used as an internal control for each mouse. Data are expressed as the fold induction of the gene of interest in the different activation conditions compared with sham control group. Data are the mean ± SEM. The data were analyzed with non-parametric Mann–Whitney U-test. p < 0.05 is considered as a significant. N = 4 mice per group. Data shown represent one of two independent experiments.