Sooty mangabey pDCs produce IFN-α in response to TLR7 agonists and SIVmac239.

<p>(A) PBMCs from SIV-negative SMs and SIV-negative RMs were incubated for 18 hr with 10 µM CL097 or 3 µg/ml SIVmac239 and stained for intracellular IFN-α. The lower panels depict uninfected human PBMCs stimulated with 10 µM CL097 or 3 µg/ml AT2 HIV-1. Insets denote percentages of IFN-α+ pDCs within the pDC population. (B) Cumulative data for CL097 stimulations, average percentage of pDCs expressing IFN-α are denoted by horizontal bars. (C) Percentage of IFN-α+ pDCs after 18 hr stimulation with AT2 SIV_mac239, or AT2 HIV-1 (for human PBMCs). Means are shown by horizontal bars. The species (RM, SM or HU) from which PBMCs were prepared and virus strain used for stimulation is depicted below the X-axis. (D) RNA production of IFN-α in PBMCs from SMs and RMs was assessed using qPCR. Fold-changes were calculated as relative to unstimulated cells, after GAPDH normalization. Experiments are the average of three animals, each measured in triplicate wells. All viral stimulation experiments (ICS and qPCR) were performed using AT2-inactivated preparations of SIV_mac239 or HIV-1.