Fig. 3.

Stress promotes expression of Tim-3 and autophagy-related proteins in CD4⁺ T cell. We obtained CD4⁺ T cells from splenocytes of mice that were subjected to chronic stress for 12 h or unstressed control mice. a The purity of resulting recovered CD4⁺ T cells was testified under a fluorescence microscope by immunofluorescence and b total splenic CD4⁺ T cells from stressed and unstressed mice were enumerated. c Apoptosis of CD4⁺ T cells was examined by Annexin V-FITC and PI staining. d Cellular lysates were extracted from the isolated CD4⁺ T cells. The Tim-3 expression and autophagy level were examined by Western blot analysis. N = 3 per group. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 compared with indicated groups