Figure 8.

In vivo rescue of experience level in the immune system with mechanical loading. The left tibia of 3 and 12 month old mice underwent daily (Monday–Friday) in vivo axial compressive cyclic loading for 2 week, thereafter the bone marrow was flow cytometric analyzed. In 3 month old mice the mechanical loading of the tibia increased the population of naïve CD8+ T cells and decreased the effector memory population locally in the bone marrow. CD4+ Tregs decreased comparably to the effector memory T cells. This more naïve immune milieu created under mechanical loading is not viable in 12 months old mice. N = 6 animals per age, boxplot distribution with median, Mann-Whitney U-test, ^*p < 0.05.