Figure 5.

Subserosal injection of Schistosoma mansoni eggs induces segment-specific Th1 and Th2 responses in the individual MLNs. (A) 1,000 S. mansoni eggs were injected into different segments of the small intestine. Individual MLNs were collected five days after injection; LN cells were restimulated with SEA in vitro and IFN-γ, and IL-4 were measured by ELISA. Schematics indicate injection site and responding LNs (n = 3 mice per group, combined data from three independent experiments; mean ± SEM; ordinary one-way ANOVA followed by Holm–Sidak’s multiple comparisons test compare LN responses to naïve controls; *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001). (B) Similar to (A), 1,000 Schistosoma mansoni eggs were injected into the different segments of the large intestine. After 5 days LNs were collected, restimulated in vitro, and assessed for antigen-specific cytokines by ELISA (n = 3 mice per group, combined data from three independent experiments; mean ± SEM; ordinary one-way ANOVA followed by Holm–Sidak’s multiple comparisons test compare LN responses to naïve controls; ***p ≤ 0.001). (C) Schematic of the murine intestine indicating the draining pattern of the different intestinal segments to their individual MLNs. (D) Segment-specific ratio of IFN-γ and Th2 cytokine levels after SEA restimulation from experiments described in (A, B) and Supplementary Figure 3 (mean ± SEM; ordinary one-way ANOVA followed by Holm–Sidak’s multiple comparisons test compare samples to sMLN1 ratios; *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001).