Fig. 2

Immune responses of HLA-A2.1/HLA-DR1 mice after immunization with Aβ-derived CD8⁺ candidate epitopes. (a) Frequency of IFNγ-secreting splenocytes in peptide-immunized mice, as assessed by ELISPOT. Spleen cells (10⁶/wells) from mice immunized with either Aβ16-24 or Aβ33-41 in CpG/Padre/IFA or with PBS/CpG/Padre/IFA were stimulated in triplicate for 18 h at 37 °C with the immunizing peptide or Padre CD4⁺ helper peptide (10 μg/ml). Results are presented as numbers of peptide-specific IFN-γ-secreting cells per 10⁶ splenocytes, calculated after subtracting the mean number of spots obtained in the absence of peptide. (b) Phenotypic analysis of C57BL/6 wt and HLA-A2.1/HLA-DR1 mice. Percentage of splenocytes positive for CD4, CD8, and CD19 markers as measured by FACS. Mean ± SD (two to four mice/group). Results are representative of two independent experiments. Mann–Whitney U test, *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01