Impaired DCs’ ability to induce autologous T cell proliferation after PS-liposomes capture, and cytokine secretion.

<p>A) Autologous proliferation of T cells (c.p.m. for ³H thymidine assay) after stimulation induced by iDCs, before (white triangles) and after the capture of PS-liposomes (white squares) or PSAB-liposomes (white circles), with insulin (20 μg/ml) at a ratio of 1:10 for 6 days. Black symbols represent proliferation induced by mature DCs (mDCs) before (triangles) and after the capture of PS-liposomes (squares) or PSAB-liposomes (circles), previously activated with proinflammatory stimuli LPS (100 ng/ml). Lines show the mean of seven independent experiments. Comparisons within each group and between paired maturation conditions showed significant differences (*p<0.05, Wilcoxon test). B) Cytokine production in T cell proliferation experiments. Levels of IFN-γ and IL-17A were measured in supernatants from T cell proliferation experiments induced by iDCs, DCs loaded with empty liposomes (PS-lipo) and DCs loaded with liposomes with insulin peptides (PSAB-lipo) in basal conditions (white bars) or after 24 hours with LPS (black bars). Results are expressed as mean±SEM from four independent experiments. Comparisons within each group and between paired maturation conditions were not able to detect significant differences (p<0.05, Wilcoxon test). “