Critical Role of Perforin-dependent CD8+ T Cell Immunity for Rapid Protective Vaccination in a Murine Model for Human Smallpox

Kremer, Melanie; Suezer, Yasemin; Volz, Asisa; Frenz, Theresa; Majzoub, Monir; Hanschmann, Kay-Martin; Lehmann, Michael H.; Kalinke, Ulrich; Sutter, Gerd

The data so far indicated that T cells might play a crucial role in short-term protective immunity. Analysis of VACV specific CD8+ T cell responses elicited by MVA immunization in JHT mice showed levels of VACV specific CD8+ CD62 low T cells comparable to those induced in C57BL/6 wt mice ( Figure S8 ). In all experiments weight loss of individual mice was monitored daily (n = 2 to 6 per group). +indicate the individual time of death. Error bars indicate SEMs, and the numbers of surviving/total animals are given in parentheses. Statistical significance of differences between groups is indicated by * for p-value,0.05, ** for p-value,0.01 and *** for p-value,0.001. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002557.g002 Thus, B cell-deficient mice are still able to mount specific T cell responses, further corroborating that T cell responses might be important for short-term protection.