Immunologic profiles of the vaccinated mice using intracellular cytokine staining and ELISA.

<p>(<b>A</b>) The number of IFN-γ-secreting CD4⁺ T cells with (open columns) or without (filled columns) the corresponding E6 protein (aa1-151). <i>Note</i>: The numbers of E6-specific, IFN-γ-secreting CD4⁺ T cells in the PE(ΔIII)/E6 (219.5±18.9) and PE(ΔIII)/E6+PE(ΔIII)/E7 (260.0±22.4) groups were significantly higher than those in the other groups (<i>p</i><0.01, one-way ANOVA). (<b>B</b>) The number of IFN-γ-secreting CD4⁺ T cells in with (open columns) or without (filled columns) the corresponding E7 protein (aa1-98). <i>Note</i>: The numbers of E7-specific, IFN-γ-secreting CD4⁺ T cells in the PE(ΔIII)/E7 (258.0±18.2) and PE(ΔIII)/E6+PE(ΔIII)/E7 (239.5±17.5) groups were significantly higher than those in the other groups (<i>p</i><0.01, one-way ANOVA). (<b>C</b>) The number of IFN-γ-secreting CD8⁺ T cell precursors with (open columns) or without (filled columns) the corresponding E6 peptide (aa 50-57). <i>Note</i>: The PE(ΔIII)/E6 (247.5±18.2) and PE(ΔIII)/E6+PE(ΔIII)/E7 (392.5±19.6) groups generated higher numbers of E6-specific, IFN-γ-secreting CD8⁺ T precursors than the other groups (<i>p</i><0.01, one-way ANOVA). (<b>D</b>) The number of IFN-γ-secreting CD8⁺ T cell precursors with (open columns) or without (filled columns) the corresponding E7 peptide (aa 49-57). <i>Note</i>: The PE(ΔIII)/E7 (588.5±16.8) and PE(ΔIII)/E6+PE(ΔIII)/E7 (778.0±18.9) groups also generated higher numbers of E7-specific, IFN-γ-secreting CD8⁺ T precursors than the other groups (<i>p</i><0.01, one-way ANOVA). ELISA demonstrated (<b>E</b>) E6-specific and (<b>F</b>) E7-specific Abs in the mice vaccinated with various protein vaccines. <i>Note</i>: The titers of E6-specific Abs were higher in the PE(ΔIII)/E6 and PE(ΔIII)/E6+PE(ΔIII)/E7 groups than in the other groups (<i>p</i><0.01, one-way ANOVA). The PE(ΔIII)/E7 and PE(ΔIII)/E6+PE(ΔIII)/E7 also generated significantly higher titers of E7-specific Abs than the other groups (<i>p</i><0.01, one-way ANOVA).