C 129s4 rag2tm1.1flv il2rgtm1.1flv j

Wild-type (WT) BALB/cByJ, recombination-activating gene 2-deficient (C.B6(Cg)-Rag2tm1.1Cgn/J), recombination-activating gene 2-deficient gamma-chain-deficient (C;129S4-Rag2tm1.1Flv Il2rgtm1.1Flv/J) mice were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, Me), and bred in our animal facility at the University of Southern California. All mice were from a BALB/cByJ background. Mice were maintained at macroenvironmental temperature of 21–22 °C, humidity (48–52%), in a conventional 12:12 light/dark cycle with lights on at 6:00 a.m. and off at 6:00 p.m. We used 5-week-old to 8-week-old age-matched female mice in our studies. All experimentation protocols were approved by the USC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Nfatc1^fl/fl (formerly called Nfat2^fl/fl).Cd4cre (NFATc1 KO), Nfat2^−/−(NFATc2 KO), Nfatc1^fl/fl.Cd4cre. Nfat2^−/− (NFATc1c2 DKO) animals have been described before [31 (link),34 (link),35 (link)]. C57BL/6-Thy1^a-Tg(TcraTcrb)1100Mjb/Crl (CD90.1 OTI), B6.SJL-Ptprc^aPepc^b/BoyJ (B6 CD45.1) and C;129S4-Rag2^tm1.1Flv-Il2rg^tm1.1Flv/J (RAG2gc KO) breeding pairs were originally purchased from Jackson Laboratory and bred under specific pathogen free conditions. NFAT KO animals were crossed with CD90.1 OTI mice to generate NFAT-deficient CD90.1 OTI cells. C57BL/6J mice were purchased from Janvier (Le Genest Saint Isle, France). All mice were housed under SPF conditions and handled in accordance with good animal practices. Typically, 8–12 week old animals were used for infection, bone marrow chimera (BMC) generation and as recipients for adoptive T cells transfer.