Fig. 6. Sufficient T cell-mediated immunity after TCR Vβ8⁺ cell depletion.

a Schematic representation of the procedure used for analyzing cellular and humoral immune responses in Vβ8⁺ cell-depleted mice. b–e Female WT B6 mice aged 6–8 weeks (n = 6 mice/group) were intraperitoneally injected with 200 μg of anti-CD3 or anti-TCR Vβ8 antibodies or PBS on days −2 and 5. The mice were vaccinated with 10 µg of the DEC-OVA fusion protein and 100 µg of an anti-CD40 antibody as an adjuvant (b–d). On Day 7, peripheral blood TCRαβ⁺ or Vβ8⁺ cells were analyzed by flow cytometry (b). On Day 12, DEC-OVA-specific antibodies were analyzed by ELISA (c), and OT-I-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses in the peripheral blood were analyzed by OT-I-pentamer staining (d). The data shown represent the mean ± SEM Statistical significance was determined by two-sided, one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons correction. ns, not significant. Mice were prepared as described in Panel A and were subcutaneously inoculated with 5 × 10⁵ B16-OVA cells (n = 6 mice/group) (e). Tumor sizes were measured and compared twice a week. Representative results of one from two replicate experiments are shown. The data shown represent the mean ± SEM Statistical significance was determined by two-sided, two-way ANOVA with Sidaks multiple comparisons test.