Figure 3

Cellular proliferation toC. abortusantigen. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from the 67 sheep in the five experimental groups were purified from whole blood (as described in section “Lymphocyte stimulation assays”) on five occasions and set up in lymphocyte stimulation assays in vitro with the UV-inactivated Chlamydia abortus (C. abortus) antigen (set up as described in section “Lymphocyte stimulation assays”). One set of the duplicate plates were analysed for cellular proliferation (described in full detail, section “Cell proliferation assays”). In brief, cellular proliferation was measured for the last 18 h of the 120 h culture, 0.5 microCurie/well was added and plates were harvested and data collated for individual animals as the geometric mean of quadruplicate values. The datasets from each experimental group is presented in individual line graphs. The data points are the arithmetic mean values for each cellular bleed and the error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM). The x axis represents the weeks post inoculation with C. abortus (intranasal inoculation (i/n) Groups 1–3 with i/n sham control Group 4; and sub-cutaneous inoculation (s/c) Group 5). The week numbering for groups 1–4 are consistent in relation to i/n whereas group 5 is in relation to s/c. The y axis represents the arithmetic mean cellular proliferation in counts per minute. A Group 1 (low dose), B Group 2 (medium dose), C Group 3 (high dose), D Group 4 (sham control) and E Group 5 (sub-cutaneous control). The statistics summarised in the figure been derived from Linear Mixed Modelling (LMM) as described in detail in section “Statistical analyses”.