Supernatants were collected from NK-DC co-culture experiments at cell ratios of 1∶5 treated with IL-15 and tested for cytokine synthesis using 25 cytokine multiplex bead immunoassay.

<p>Data shown are for all the cytokines that were expressed in culture supernatants. Of these, comparisons were made between cytokine synthesis for DCs with either HLA-C1 homozygous allele or DCs with HLA-C2 homozygous alleles. Data shown excludes background synthesis by cells in isolation. These data indicates that DC with HLA-C1 alleles express significantly greater pro-inflammatory cytokines in NK-DC co-culture favouring immune maturation whereas DC with HLA-C2 alleles predominantly express anti-inflammatory cytokines that are inhibiting to DC maturation. Means ± SEM for 4 independent experiments in each group are shown and * indicates statistical significance with p<0.05 by Mann-Whitney U test.