Figure 4. STAT3 in oral epithelial cells is required for protection against OPC.

A. RNASeq was performed on whole tongue mRNA from WT, Il22^−/− and Il17ra^−/− mice subjected to OPC and harvested on day 1 p.i. Venn diagram of differentially regulated or overlapping genes in infected Il22^−/− and Il17ra^−/− compared to WT mice. 215 genes were regulated both by IL-22 and IL-17RA, whereas 368 genes are regulated only by IL-22, and 931 genes were regulated only by IL-17RA. B. GSEA enrichment of predicted IL-6/STAT3 gene sets in Il17ra^−/− and Il22^−/− mice from panel A. C. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of RNASeq data from panel A, indicating that STAT3 is an upstream regulator integrating Il22- and Il17ra- driven transcriptional networks. D. IF staining of tongue frozen sections with DAPI and anti-pSTAT3 (Tyr705) in WT, Il22^−/− and Il17ra^−/− mice harvested 2 days p.i. Size bar = 200 μm. E. qPCR of Il22 in tongue mRNA from WT or Il17ra^−/− mice at 2 days p.i. normalized to Gapdh F. IF staining of DAPI, pSTAT3 (Tyr705) and K14 in WT or Il22ra1^−/− mice at 2 days p.i. Size bar = 200 μm. G. The indicated mice were subjected to OPC and fungal burden quantified at day 5 p.i.. Data are pooled from 3 experiments H. All mice except Il22^−/− were administered tamoxifen for 5 d, subjected to OPC and fungal burden assessed on day 5 p.i. Bars show geometric mean ± SD. Data was pooled from 3 experiments. Data analyzed by ANOVA with Mann-Whitney U test.