Fig. 3

Lkb1-deficient DCs directly stimulate T_reg cell proliferation. a–c Flow cytometric analysis (a), percentage (b) and number (c) of CFSE-labelled T_reg cells (CD4⁺Foxp3⁺, 2×10⁵) sorted from B6 mice after co-culture with DCs (1×10⁵) sorted from Lkb1^f/f or Cd11c^CreLkb1^f/f mice supplemented with IL-2 for 4 days. d–f Flow cytometric analysis (d), percentage (e) and number (f) of CFSE-labelled T_reg cells sorted from B6 mice after co-culture with WT or Lkb1-deficient DCs sorted from mixed BM chimaera mouse models. g Flow cytometric analysis of the proliferation of CFSE-labelled T_reg cells sorted from B6 mice in the lower Transwell chamber after 4 days of co-culture with DCs from Lkb1^f/f (wild-type, WT) and/or Cd11c^CreLkb1^f/f (conditional knockout, CKO) mice in the upper and/or lower chamber of a Transwell plate, in diverse combinations, as indicated. In the schematic diagram, grey dots indicate T_reg cells, while red and blue dots indicate DCs in the upper and lower chamber, respectively. The coloured phrases in the histogram plots indicate the setup of DCs under each culture condition. h–j Flow cytometric analysis (h), percentage (i) and number (j) of CFSE-labelled T_reg cells (CD4⁺Foxp3⁺, 2×10⁶) sorted from B6 mice transferred together with or without DCs (1×10⁶) sorted from Lkb1^f/f or Cd11c^CreLkb1^f/f mice into irradiated NSG mice via tail vein injection for 3 days. The results are presented as the mean ± S.E.M., *P < 0.05, by Student's t-test (b, c, e, f, i, j). Data are pooled from b, c, i, j or are representative of a, d, g, h three independent experiments