Effect of CpG-ODN therapy in the T-cell RNA levels for various apoptotic-related genes.

CD4⁺ (A) or CD8⁺ (B) T cells were purified from untreated, CpG-ODN– (black bars), or Neg-ODN–treated (white bars) mice one day after the final ODN injection. Total RNA was isolated, and the amounts of specific transcripts were determined using a custom-designed RNA protection assay containing the indicated genes. After normalization against a housekeeping gene (GAPDH), the expression of each gene from the ODN-treated groups was compared with the expression observed in the untreated mice. Results represent the expression levels for each transcript found in ODN-treated mice over the untreated controls. The asterisks represent a greater than 33% increase in gene expression. The error bars represent the standard errors of means obtained from 3 different experiments.