Fig. 1

Earlier mammary carcinogenesis in IL15KO/NeuT mice. a Tumor-free survival curves (IL15KO/NeuT mice versus NeuT mice, p <0.01 by the Mantel-Haenszel test). IL15KO/NeuT mice: n = 46; NeuT mice: n = 117. b Expression of rat HER2/neu transcript in preneoplastic mammary glands from 6-week-old mice. Expression was evaluated by real-time PCR applying the ΔΔCt method using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene and the HER2/neu-positive TUBO mammary carcinoma cell line as reference. c Whole mounts of mammary glands obtained from 15-week-old mice. N = lymph node. d Expression of NKp46 and CD8 mRNAs in preneoplastic mammary glands from 6-week-old mice. Expression was evaluated by real-time PCR applying the ΔΔCt method using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene and mammary glands from 6-week-old BALB/c mice as reference. ^* = p <0.05 at Student’s t test. IL15KO/NeuT BALB/c mice transgenic for rat HER2/neu oncogene and knocked out for IL-15, NeuT BALB/c mice transgenic for rat HER2/neu oncogene