G-CSF treatment mimics the splenic super-shedder immune phenotype.

<p>Mice were identified as moderate (<10⁶ cfu/gm) or super-shedder (>10⁸ cfu/gm) between day 15 and day 30 post infection. Moderate shedders were injected with 1 µg G-CSF per day for three days and sacrificed on the 4^th day. Data shown is representative of 2 independent experiments with a total of 8–10 mice in each condition. Significance was determined using a two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test with one asterisk representing p<0.05 and two representing a p<0.01. A: Splenic Gr1⁺ cells are represented as a percentage of total cells in G-CSF- and PBS-treated control mice. B: Tbet⁺ T_H1 cells from splenocytes were quantified as a percentage of CD4 T cells. C, D: Splenocytes were stimulated ex vivo for 15 minutes with 40 ng/ml of IL-6 and IL-2 and total CD4 T cell pSTAT1 and pSTAT5 MFI measured. E: Fecal bacterial burden was quantified.