Figure 4

Activation of mast cells converts Th0 cells to Tregs.

The W^sh mice were reconstituted with OVA-specific IgE-sensitized BMMCs, or naïve BMMCs. CD4⁺ CD25⁻ T cells were isolated from the OTII mouse intestine, labelled with CFSE and adoptively transferred to the mice (10⁶ cells/mouse). Mice were fed with saline or OVA (5 mg/mouse) daily for one week. After sacrifice, LPMCs were prepared and stained with anti-Foxp3, anti-CD25 and annexin V (labelled with PE) reagent and analyzed by flow cytometry. The CFSE⁺ cells were gated first; the phenotypes of the CFSE⁺ cells were further analyzed. The gated dot plots indicate the frequencies of apoptotic cells (A–C) or Tregs (E–G). The bar graphs (D, H) show the summarized data of dot plots. The data of bars are presented as mean ± SD. *, p < 0.01, compared with group A (D), or group E (H). Each group consisted of 6 mice. The data represent 6 separate experiments.