Figure 4

IL-27-enhanced development of Qa-2⁺ cells in CD4⁺ SP1 thymocyte cultures.

(A) The profile of isolated CD4⁺ SP1 thymocytes was shown by the expression of 6C10 and CD69 (left), or by the expression of CD69 and Qa-2 (right). The purity of the sorted cells was 97–99%. (B) Freshly isolated CD4⁺ SP1 thymocytes from WT mice were cultured for 4 days in RPMI-1640 medium with or without the addition of IL-27, IL-30 or anti-IL-27p28. Acquisition of Qa-2 expression was detected by surface staining. Representative dot plots (left) and the percentage of Qa-2⁺ cells as well as the recovered live cells number (right) were presented. (C) SP1 cells were co-cultured with thymic DCs obtained from CD11c-cre p28^flox/flox or WT mice for 4 days in the presence or absence of IL-27. Qa-2 expression was evaluated by FACS analysis. Representative dot plots (left) and the percentage of Qa-2⁺ cells (right) are presented. The experiments were repeated for five times. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.