Journal: Frontiers in Immunology
Article Title: Early sex-related transcriptional differences in CD8 + T cells responding to chronic viral infection reveal a sex bias in exhaustion
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1783098
Figure Lengend Snippet: Sex-related CD8 + T cell responses to LCMV-Armstrong and LCMV-clone 13 infection. (a) Experimental approach (Image created with biorender.com ). Flow cytometry staining of CD62L hi CD44 lo naïve T cells (gated on CD45.1 + CD8 + T cells) is shown. F, female; M, male; Arm, LCMV-Armstrong virus; Cl13, LCMV-clone 13 virus; FACS, fluorescence activated cell sorting; scRNA-seq, single-cell RNA-sequencing. (b) Absolute cell numbers of transferred CD45.1 + CD8 + T cells that are female (F, circles) or male (M, squares), analyzed in the spleen of LCMV-Armstrong (top) or LCMV-clone 13 (bottom) infected mice at 7 dpi. Summary of three independent experiments for LCMV-Armstrong ( n = 11 mice) and four independent experiments for LCMV-clone 13 ( n = 12 female mice, n = 14 male mice). Independent experiments are represented by different shades of orange (female) and blue (male). * p<0.05, significant, ns, not significant, determined using an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t -test. Arm, LCMV-Armstrong virus; Cl13, LCMV-clone 13 virus. (c) Absolute cell numbers of transferred CD45.1 + CD8 + T cells that are female (F, circles) or male (M, squares) in the blood at 7 dpi with LCMV-Armstrong (top) and LCMV-clone 13 (bottom) viruses. Independent experiments are represented by different shades of orange (female) and blue (male). Summary of three LCMV-Armstrong and four LCMV-clone 13 independent experiments with at least three mice per group. *** p<0.001, ns, not significant, determined using an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t -test. Arm, LCMV-Armstrong virus; Cl13, LCMV-clone 13 virus; dpi, days post-infection. (d) MSD, Meso Scale discovery analyses of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the sera of LCMV-Armstrong (top, closed circles, closed squares) or LCMV-clone 13 (bottom, open circles, open squares) infected F, female (circles) or M, male (squares) mice at 7 dpi. Summary of two independent experiments with five to twelve mice per group. Box and whiskers plots show minimum and maximum values and line at the median. Each symbol represents an individual mouse. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean (SEM). ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ns, not significant, statistical significance of differences was analyzed between female and male samples per infection type, determined using unpaired two-tailed Student’s t -test.
Article Snippet: Barcoded single-cell (sc) cDNA libraries were generated (10X Genomics) from inactivated naïve and antigen-specific CD8 + T cells harvested at 7 dpi with LCMV-Armstrong or LCMV-clone 13 viruses.
Techniques: Infection, Flow Cytometry, Staining, Virus, Fluorescence, FACS, Single Cell, RNA Sequencing, Two Tailed Test