Mice

Female C57BL/6 (B6, H-2^b), Rag2^−/− and Rag2^−/−γc^−/− mice were purchased from Taconic (Santa Maria, CA). Cd1d^−/− and UBC-GFP mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Sacramento, CA). 2D2-TCR transgenic mice⁴² and NK1.1-tdTomato mice were kindly provided by V. Kuchroo (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA) and W. Yokoyama (Washington University, St. Louis, MO), respectively. 2D2 Cd1d^−/− mice were generated by crossing 2D2 and Cd1d^−/− mice. NK1.1-tdTomato Cd1d^−/− mice were generated by crossing NK1.1-tdTomato and Cd1d^−/− mice. All mutant mice were backcrossed to the B6 background for 8–12 generations and were housed in pathogen-free conditions at the animal facilities of the Barrow Neurological Institute (Phoenix, AZ) or at the Tianjin Neurological Institute (Tianjin, China). For all experiments, 6- to 12-week-old, age-matched female littermates were used between experimental groups. All mice were randomly assigned to each experiment. All mice were housed no more than 5 animals per cage under standardized light-dark cycle conditions with access to food and water ad libitum. All animal studies were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committees of the Barrow- St. Joseph or Tianjin Neurological Institute.