Fig 2: Pancreatic AIP-score of MRL/MpJ mice treated with regulatory T cells. CD4+ CD25+ T regs were isolated from adult female MRL/MpJ mice (27 ± 0.1 weeks old) and expanded for 2 weeks. Afterwards 2.5 × 106 cells were transferred into female MRL/MpJ mice at an advanced age of 30 ± 0.2 weeks, where spontaneous AIP occurs at a high frequency.12 Age-matched control mice did not receive cells. Six weeks after the injection, pancreatic tissue was CD3 and H&E stained and scored in a semi-quantitative manner (scores from 0 to 4). Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 8-10 per group). There was no significant difference between the two groups

Fig 3: Immunohistochemical staining of pancreatic tissue from MRL/MpJ recipient mice treated with different splenic cell populations. Young MRL/MpJ were injected with different splenic cell populations obtained from adult donor animals. Immunohistochemistry was performed on 6 µm thick pancreatic sections of recipient mice 6 weeks after cell injection. Exemplary pictures are shown for animals with spontaneous AIP (A) or animals treated with unpurified splenocytes (B), CD3+ T cells (C), CD4+ Thelper-cells (D) or CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (E). CD3, CD4 and CD8 were stained in serial sections to evaluate the composition of the autoimmune infiltrates

Fig 4: Workflow for adoptive transfer of different splenocyte subpopulations. Unpurified splenocytes were isolated from spleens of donor MRL/MpJ mice 14 days (T regs) or 3 days (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD4+ CD44high T cells) prior to cell injection. The subpopulations were isolated either on the same day (T regs) or right before the injection (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD4+ CD44high T cells). Recipient mice were pretreated with 200 mg/kg bodyweight cyclophosphamide 1 week before the cell transfer. The animals were sacrificed 6 weeks later for end-point analyses