Interleukin 21 Signaling in B Cells Is Required for Efficient Establishment of Murine Gammaherpesvirus Latency
Fig 5
Reduced frequency of infected B cells with a germinal center phenotype in IL21-R-/- mice.
Mice were intranasally infected with 1,000 pfu of MHV68-H2bYFP and splenocytes were harvested at the indicated time points. (A) Representative flow plots of YFP+ germinal center B cells (black dots) overlaid onto the total B cell population (gray), showing that a reduced percentage of YFP+ B cells have a germinal center phenotype in IL-21R-/- mice. Flow plots were gated on CD3-, CD4-, CD8-, B220+, YFP+, and germinal center B cells were defined as CD95hi GL7hi. (B) Quantitation of the percentage of YFP+ B cells that have a germinal center phenotype. Each symbol represents a single mouse. Results are from 3 independent experiments at each time point with 3–6 mice per group. d14, p = 0.0252; d16, p = 0.0001; d18 and d20, p<0.0001.