Cytokine production of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cells in response to <i>ex vivo</i> challenge with LCMV antigens is not affected at post-acute stages of SIRS/sepsis.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Experimental design. Ten days after induction of SIRS/sepsis C57BL/6 (Thy1.2/1.2) mice were infected with LCMV-Arm (2×10⁵ PFU/mouse i.p.). 8 days post infection mice were sacrificed and spleens were harvested and processed for <i>ex vivo</i> LCMV peptide stimulation. (<b>B</b>) IFNγ production in CD4⁺ T-cells following GP61 stimulation. Whole splenocyte preparations were stimulated with 50 µg/ml GP61 peptide. 5 h after stimulation the geometric mean fluorescence index (gMFI) of Ag-specific IFNγ-producing (IFNγ(+)) CD4⁺ cells was assessed via flow cytometry. (<b>C</b>) IFNγ and (<b>D</b>) TNFα production in CD8⁺ T-cells. Whole splenocyte preparations were stimulated with 200 nM GP33 LCMV peptide. 5 h after stimulation the gMFI of IFNγ-producing (IFNγ(+)) or TNFα-producing (TNFα(+)) CD8⁺ cells was assessed via flow cytometry. Data are presented as mean + SEM (3–5 mice/group) and represent two to four independent experiments. A two-tailed, Mann-Whitney U test with a confidence interval of 95% was performed to determine significances between two experimental groups. A One-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni analysis was performed to determine significances between more than two experimental groups (* p≤0.05, n.s., not significant).