Analyzing Virus-Specific T Cell Responses

After animal sacrifice and perfusion with ice cold PBS, half of the brain of mice was collected and homogenized at defined times p.i. and leukocytes enriched on a Percoll gradient as previously described (Blanc et al., 2014 (link)). Cells were stained using the following antibodies: CD4 (GK1.5, Biolegend), CD3 (145–2 C11, Biolegend), IFN-γ (XMG1.2, Biolegend), FoxP3 (FJK-16s, eBioscience), IL-10 (JES5-16E3, Biolegend), CD8 (53-6.7, Biolegend), CD45 (30-F11, Biolegend), F4/80 (BM8, Biolegend), CD11b (M1/70, Biolegend), CD40 (HM40-3, Biolegend), CD86 (GL-1, Biolegend), MHCI (M1/42, Biolegend), and MHCII (M5/114.15.2, Biolegend). Virus-specific T cells were determined via flow cytometric analysis through either intracellular staining for IFN-γ or defined tetramers specific for immunodominant CD4 +and CD8+T cell-specific viral epitopes (Chen et al., 2014 (link); Stiles et al., 2006 (link)). Samples were analyzed using BD LSRFortessa and FACSDiva software and data was measured using FlowJo.