Figure 3

CD8 ⁺ T cells mediated protection induced by HBV ⁺ DRibbles. The schematic diagram outlines the experiment protocol (A). Mice were injected hydrodynamically with HBV plasmid DNA 7 days after vaccination and immediately subjected to intraperitoneal injection of PBS, anti-CD4 mAb, anti-CD8 mAb or anti-CD4 mAb plus anti-CD8 mAb, respectively (n = 5) (B-D). The serum HBeAg (B) and HBV DNA (C) were detected by ELISA and real-time PCR. Intrahepatic HBcAg was visualized by immunohistochemistry (×200) (D). Lymphocytes from HBV⁺ DRibbles vaccinated mice (n = 3) were co-incubated with target cells (the effector to target ratio was 100:1) before the supernatant IFN-γ (E) and AST (F) were assayed by ELISA and by clinical chemistry analyzer. These experiments were repeated three times with comparable results.