Splenocyte and Naïve CD4⁺ T cell proliferation in response to <i>C.</i><i>difficile</i>-stimulated BMDCs.

<p>WT BMDCs were infected with PFA-fixed <i>C. difficile</i> strains at an MOI of 50. 24 h post-infection, infected BMDCs were co-cultured with CFSE-labelled splenocytes in the presence of anti-CD3/CD28. Proliferation of CD4⁺ gated cells 96 h post stimulation (A). Quantification presented as percentage of proliferating cells (B). Infected BMDCs were co-cultured with CFSE-labelled naïve CD4⁺ T cells from OT-II transgenic mice in the presence of OVA_323–339 and T cell proliferation was analysed (C). 1 µg/ml LPS utilised as a reference stimulus. ***p<0.001 represent significant difference from uninfected control cells. Data was analysed using ANOVA with Bonferroni post-test.