Figure 3.

Vibrio vulnificus rtxA mutant was defective in inducing Th17 cell responses in vitro and in vivo. DCs were infected with WT and rtxA mutant V. vulnificus at an MOI of 10 for 60 min. After 20 h, DCs were co-cultured with naïve CD4⁺ T cells isolated from lymph nodes for 3 days in the presence of anti-CD3ε and anti-CD28 mAbs, followed by flow cytometric analysis of CD4 and IL-17 expression (A) or ELISA for IL-17A levels in the supernatants (B). (C) The expression of CD4 and IL-17 in the lamina propria samples of uninfected mice or mice infected with WT and rtxA mutant (1 × 10⁷ CFU per mouse) were analyzed by flow cytometry. The data shown in (A,C) are representative of three independent experiments, and bar graphs represent the means ± SD of three independent experiments. Bars and error bars in (B) represent the mean ± SD of results performed in triplicate. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.005 as determined by Student's t-test for pairwise comparisons. WT, wild type; rtxA, rtxA mutant.