Induction of Th17 Lymphocytes and Treg Cells by Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Figure 1
Peripheral blood DCs subsets and mo-DCs in patients with RA and SLE. (a) Myeloid and plasmacytoid DCs levels were determined in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells by multiparametric flow cytometry, as stated in materials and methods. Data correspond to the percent of CD11c+ BDCA-2+ nonlineage cells (myeloid DCs), and CD11c− BDCA-4+ nonlineage cells (plasmacytoid DCs). (b) The expression of the regulatory receptors PSGL-1 and PD-1 by myeloid and plasmacytoid DCs was analyzed by multiparametric flow cytometry in blood samples from patients with RA and SLE, as stated in materials and methods. (c) mo-DCs were generated in vitro by culturing peripheral blood monocytes in the presence of IL-4 and GM-CSF, and their maturation was induced by LPS. Then, cells were immunostained for the indicated molecules, and analyzed by flow cytometry. Data correspond to the percent of positive cells (left panel), and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI, right panel) in cells from representative patients with RA and SLE, and a healthy control. (d) IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-23 were quantified in the cell culture supernatants of mo-DCs incubated in the presence of LPS. Median and interquartile range are shown in (a) and (d) and the arithmetic mean and SD in (c). *. In all panels, white boxes correspond to controls, grey light boxes to patients with RA, and grey dark boxes to SLE patients.
