Fig. 4

CXCR3^−/− recipient mice show increased CNS-infiltrating Th17 cells. Adoptive-transfer EAE was performed as described in Fig. 3, except that 2 × 10⁵ donor CD4⁺IL-17⁺ cells were used for adoptive-transfer experiments (WT → WT and WT → CXCR3^−/−, 18 recipient mice for each group; CXCR3^−/− → WT and CXCR3^-/- → CXCR3^−/−, 19 recipient mice for each group). Spinal cords were collected from recipient mice on day 12 post-immunization, and CNS-infiltrating cells were isolated. Different subsets of T cells were identified by surface and intracellular staining using flow cytometry. a Total CNS-infiltrating leukocytes. b CNS-infiltrating CD4⁺ T cells. c CNS-infiltrating CD4⁺IFN-γ⁺ T cells. d CNS-infiltrating CD4⁺IL-17⁺ T cells. Each mouse is represented by a symbol. Data shown are from three independent experiments. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001. The gating strategy for the FACS analysis of this figure is shown in Additional file 3: Figure S3