Fig. 5

Effect of sex and strain on maturation of T lymphocytes in the mesenteric lymph nodes. Gating strategy for determination of T cell subsets in the mesenteric lymph nodes (a). Lymphocytes were gated based on size and scatter in the forward side scatter plot. T cells were determined by selecting CD3⁺ cells. Within the CD3⁺ cells, CD8⁺ (Tc cells) and CD4⁺ (Th cells) cells were selected. Within both the CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ population, the percentage of CD62L and CD44 were measured. All isotype controls were set at 1%. Frequency of CD62L⁺CD44⁻ naive CD8 (b) and CD4 (e), CD62L⁺CD44⁺ central memory CD8 (c) and CD4 (f) and CD62L⁻CD44⁺ effector memory CD8 (d) and CD4 (g) in the mesenteric lymph nodes of male and female BALB/c and B6 mice (10 mice per group). T cytotoxic cells are expressed as the frequency of CD8⁺ cells within the CD3⁺ population, whereas T helper cells are expressed as the frequency of CD4⁺ cells within the CD3⁺ population. Results are shown as mean + SEM and were tested for overall strain and sex effects using a two-way ANOVA followed by a Bonferroni post hoc test to test for strain-specific sex effects when interaction was found. Significant strain effects are indicated with solid lines and significant sex effects are indicated with dashed lines (p < 0.05)