Murine Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells Acquire, Though Fail to Present Exogenous Protein Antigens on Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Molecules

Figure 3

SMCs fail to induce OT-II CD4⁺ T cell activation. Expression of CD69, CD25, and CD44 on OT-II CD4⁺ T cells cocultured with OVA- or OVA_323–339 peptide-treated SMCs or OVA-treated DCs (used as positive control). Results are expressed as mean ± SEM from three separate experiments run in triplicate. ^∗∗∗𝑃<0.001 versus OT-II CD4⁺ T cells alone at 24 h; ^∘∘𝑃<0.01, ^∘∘∘𝑃<0.001 versus OT-II CD4⁺ T cells alone at 48 h; ^##𝑃<0.01 and ^###𝑃<0.001 versus OT-II CD4⁺ T cells alone at 72 h.

(a)

(b)

(c)