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Figure 4 | Immunity & Ageing

Figure 4

From: The interplay between immune maturation, age, chronic viral infection and environment

Figure 4

Age-dependent increase in infant IFN-γ CD4+T cell responses. The ability of CD4+ and CD8+T cells to produce IFN-γ in response to in vitro PMA/ionomycin stimulation was assessed in 23 infant SPF-2 macaques at various time points from birth to 48 weeks of age using flow cytometric analysis. The percentage of infant macaques with a positive IFN-γ response in CD4+ (left graph) or CD8+T cells (right graph) is shown for the time of birth (week 0), and for weeks 4, 12, 24, and 48 of age. Bars at a specific time point show the percentage of animals with a positive CD4+ or CD8+T cell response in less than 0.015% (white), between 0.015% and 0.1% (light grey), between 0.1% and 1.0% (dark grey), and in more than 1.0% (black) of the CD4+ or CD8+T cell population. Additional file 3: Table S3 contains the extended data set used for the graphical representation here. Note the age-dependent increase in the percentage of SPF-2 infants with higher frequencies of IFN-γ positive CD4+T cells. At birth, about 70% of infants have no or only a weakly positive IFN-γ response in CD4+ T cells (<0.015%), whereas at 48 weeks of age 50% of the infants show responses >0.1% (p = 0.002; Additional file 3: Table S3). In contrast, the magnitude of IFN-γ responses in CD8+T cells did not differ between newborn and 1 year old SPF-2 infant macaques (Additional file 3: Table S3).

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