Generally, spleen cells were obtained at the time of

BALF collection from experimental HP mice. CD4+ T-cell purification and staining with PKH67 were performed according to the manufacturer’s protocol (Sigma). Pre-stained CD4+ T cells were diluted (BALF cells: T cells) 1:6 or 1:12, then co-cultured for 3 days. A T-cell proliferation index was evaluated by measuring the decreasing PKH67 staining intensities in CD4+ T cells after co-culture with BALF cells. For in vitro experiments, the effects of CD11b+Ly-6Chigh or CD11b+Ly-6C− cells on T-cell proliferation were assessed using [3H] thymidine as described previously 11. In brief, U-bottom 96-well plates were coated with anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies (1 μg/mL each) EPZ 6438 overnight at 4°C. CD4+ T cells (0.3×105 cells/well) were

purified using specific MACS beads (Miltenyi Biotec) and then cultured with plate-bound anti-CD3/CD28 for 3 days. The activated CD4+ T cells were co-cultured with BM cell-derived CD11b+Ly-6Chigh, CD11b+Ly-6Cint, and CD11b+Ly-6C− cells from the beginning of the culture. During the final 16 h of the 3-day culture, 1 μCi [3H] thymidine was added, and the check details cells were then harvested. The supernatants (50 μL) were harvested before addition of [3H] thymidine to measure cytokine levels. For statistical comparisons, non-parametric two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-tests and two-way ANOVA were used. All statistical analyses were performed with Prism 4 software (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA). We thank Ms. Masako Seki, Ms. Kanako Ito, Ms. Megumi Nagayama and Mr. Tetsuya Shiota (GalPharma, Japan) for technical nearly assistances and Dr. Aya Yokota (Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kagawa Campus, Tokushima Bunri University, Japan) for technical assistance with cell sorting. This work was supported, in part, by a Grant-In-Aid for young scientists (B) 2008-2009 (20790570) to T. A. from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), by Kagawa University Characteristic Prior Research Fund 2009 to M. H., and by grants from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no financial or commercial conflict of interest. “
“Invariant NKT (iNKT)-cell stimulation with exogenous specific ligands prevents the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in NOD mice. Studies based on anti-islet T-cell transfer showed that iNKT cells prevent the differentiation of these T cells into effector T cells in the pancreatic lymph nodes (PLNs). We hypothesize that this defective priming could be explained by the ability of iNKT cells to induce tolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs) in the PLNs. We evaluated the effect of iNKT-cell stimulation on T1D development by transferring naïve diabetogenic BDC2.5 T cells into proinsulin 2−/− NOD mice treated with a long-lasting α-galactosylceramide regimen.