Fig. 5

Adaptive T cell responses of CCR5-ablated mice following JEV infection. a–d JEV-specific CD4⁺ T cell responses. e, f JEV-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses. Splenocytes prepared from surviving mice at 7 days following JEV (3.0 × 10⁷ pfu) infection were stimulated with JEV epitope peptide of CD4⁺ T cells (a, c NS1_132–145; b, d, NS3_563–574) and of CD8⁺ T cells (e, f NS4B_215–223) for 12 and 6 h, respectively. The frequency and absolute number of JEV-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells were evaluated by intracellular CD154 and cytokine (IFN-γ or TNF-α) staining combined with CD4 and CD8 surface staining. Values in representative dot-plots are the average percentage of the indicated cell population, while bar charts show the average ± SD of values derived from at least three independent experiments (n = 3–4). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 compared with the levels of the indicated groups