Dietary Vitamin D Increases Percentages and Function of Regulatory T Cells in the Skin-Draining Lymph Nodes and Suppresses Dermal Inflammation

Figure 5

Dietary vitamin did not modify neuropilin expression on Foxp3+ cells from the skin, SDLN, lung, or ADLN or alter the capacity of DCs from the ADLN to induce new Foxp3+ cells. Female offspring born to vitamin D₃-replete or vitamin D₃-deficient BALB/c mothers were maintained on the vitamin D₃-replete (vitD+) or vitamin D₃-deficient (vitD−) diets (resp.) until 8 weeks of age. In (a), the expression of neuropilin in the skin, SDLN, lungs, and ADLN is shown, with cells from vitamin D₃-replete and vitamin D₃-deficient mice shown in blue and black, respectively (unstained = red shaded). Data are representative of two experiments. In (b), MHC class cells from the ADLN were sorted with the prepurity (left) and postpurity (right) shown, as determined by flow cytometry. These cells were cocultured with lymph node cells from OVA-TCR transgenic mice (DO11.10 mice) at a ratio of 0 : 1 (no DC) or 1 : 40 (with DC) for 62 h with OVA peptide. (c) The gating strategy for determining the percentage of CD25+Foxp3− and CD25+Foxp3+ cells after 62 h of coculture. In (d), the percentages of CD25+Foxp3− and CD25+Foxp3+ cells of CD4+CD3+ cells are shown as mean ± SEM for 3 wells/treatment. .

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)