Fig. 4

Analysis of peripheral blood shows disease development in mice carrying the MC cells but not in KO#7 as measured by the levels of GFP+ cell numbers. There is a highly significant decrease in levels of CD4 + (85.58%) and CD8+ (67.43%) cells in the mice carrying the MC cells compared with the mice carrying KO clone #7, which shows no differences with the naïve normal control BALB/c mice without engraftment (A). A more more than 100% increase in the levels of CD11b+/Ly6C+ MDSCs is seen in mice injected with the MC BBC2 cells (B). At this stage (C) the disease has progressed significantly as shown by more than 60% GFP+ cells in the spleens from mice (N = 5) carrying the MC cells but there are virtually no GFP+ cells in the spleens from mice inoculated with KO#7 cells which is comparable with the naïve mice. The percentage of MDSC and CD4+/CD8+ cells in the spleens from the two cohorts show the same trend seen in the PB (D). The proportions of MDSC and CD4+/CD8+ cells in the PB of mice carrying the KO#7 cells are virtually identical to those seen in PB from naïve BALB/c mice. * p = < 0.01, *** p = < 0.0001, **** p = < 0.00001