Fig. 1.
CD8 TE produce IL-10 upon hepatocellular Ag recognition. (A) Determination of serum IL-10 in chimpanzee A0A006 after experimental intravenous inoculation of 1010 of HBV.13 (Top panel) Serum HBV DNA levels were determined by quantitative real-time PCR and are shown as GE/ml (left axis). Serum ALT activity (light blue shaded area) is shown as U/L (right axis); (middle panel) intrahepatic CD8 mRNA expression is shown as a shaded blue area (fold induction compared to two pre-inoculation time points); (bottom panel) Serum IL-10 is expressed in pg/ml. (B) Quantification of hepatic IL-10 (dark blue bars) and IFN-γ (light blue line) mRNA (fold increase over PBS-injected controls) at the indicated time points upon adoptive transfer of Cor93 CD8 TE into HBV replication-competent transgenic mice. n ≥3/time point; results are representative of 3 independent experiments. (C) Quantification of IL-10 (dark blue bars) and IFN-γ (light blue line) in the serum of the same mice described in B. (D-G) Cor93 TE cells were incubated in vitro with PBS (Ctrl) or Cor93 peptide for 4 h prior to quantifying IL-10 (D) or IFN-γ (E) mRNA in cell lysates (expression relative to the mouse reference gene GAPDH), and IL10 (F) or IFN-γ (G) proteins in the supernatant. n = 3; results are representative of 3 independent experiments. (H) Quantification of hepatic IL-10 mRNA (expression relative to the mouse reference gene GAPDH) 4 h after adoptive transfer of 107 IL-10+/+ or IL-10−/− Cor93 CD8 TE into IL-10+/+ or IL-10−/− HBV replication-competent transgenic mice. n = 3; results are representative of 2 independent experiments. Results are expressed as mean + SEM. *p <0.05, **p <0.01, ***p <0.001, ****p <0.0001. Means between two groups were compared with two-tailed t test. Means among three or more groups were compared with one-way or two-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni’s post-hoc test.