Antigen-specific response is defective in lupus-prone mice.

<p>Splenocytes were collected from infected mice 7 dpi and were stimulated 3 days in vitro with either IL-12 (5ng/ml), STAg (20 ug/ml), or IL-12+ STAg. Supernatants were assayed by ELISA for IFN-gamma production. A significant decrease in antigen-specific IFN-gamma was observed (*). (A) B6.<i>lpr</i> (B) BXSB. B6.<i>lpr</i> mice were 20 weeks of age and BXSB mice were 14 weeks of age. This experiment is representative of 2–3 individual experiments with 3–4 mice per group.