Fig. 2

Immune profiles of engrafted donor, trafficked maternal and recipient cells following paternal cell transplantation and immune T cell responses, cytokine and FOXP3 gene expression following re-exposure to donor cells. Compared to DC control (n = 9), DC-depleted recipients (n = 11) had engrafted donor cells showing reductions in all immune types relative to CD19 (p < 0.05, a, b), and no significant changes in the trafficked maternal immune cells in bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) (c, d). Recipient immune cell profile was similar in DC control and DC-depleted groups, with relatively higher CD19 in both (p < 0.005, e, f). Postnatal weeks are shown on the x-axis (a–f). DC-depleted pups (n = 4) showed higher fold-changes in CD4+ effector memory (Tm), regulatory T cells (Treg) and CD25+ Treg compared to uninjected controls (n = 3, represented by the dotted horizontal line) and higher CD25+ Treg compared to DC control (n = 4), when exposed to BALB/c donor cells (g). Higher fold changes in CD8 central memory (Tm), effector (Teff), Treg and CD62L+ CD25+ Treg were observed in DC-depleted pIUT pups compared to DC control and uninjected control (n = 4) when stimulated with B6 cells (h). Reductions in helper T cell cytokines and FOXP3 levels i were observed with DC-depletion (n = 4) in response to paternal and maternal donor cells, compared to DC control (n = 4). The horizontal dotted line represents levels in the uninjected control group normalised to a value of 1 (g–i). Bars with dark shades represent DC control pups and light shades represent DC-depleted pups (g–i). Data represent mean ± SD, analysed by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test