On day 12 www.selleckchem.com/products/Tigecycline.html (or days 1 and 5, data not shown), 8 μg (100 μl) of FAM-FLIVO™ green dye (Immunochemistry Technologies) was injected per mouse and left to circulate for 1 h. The lungs and livers were harvested and cells isolated following collagenase (300 U/ml) (Sigma-Aldrich) and DNase I (10 mg/ml) digestion (Roche Diagnostics, West Sussex, UK). Cells were counterstained with anti-human CD4 allophycocyanin (APC) (eBioscience, San Diego, CA, USA) and analysed by flow cytometry. Bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DC) were isolated

from BALB/c mice and cultured in cRPMI supplemented with 20 ng/ml granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (Peprotech) for 8 days. Human JAK inhibitor CD4+ T cells were isolated from PBMC by magnetic bead separation following the manufacturer’s guidelines (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA). Murine DC (1·5 × 105/ml) were matured following stimulation with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (polyIC) (20 μg/ml), as described previously [35], and co-cultured with human CD4+ T cells (1 × 106/ml) in the presence or absence of human MSC (1 × 105/ml) in cRPMI supplemented with 0·1% (v/v) beta-mercaptoethanol. After 5 days, human CD4+ T cell were repurified from co-cultures

by CD4+ magnetic bead separation and allowed to rest for 24 h in cRPMI. Repurified human CD4+ T cells (1 × 106/ml) were then co-cultured with irradiated BALB/c DC (1 × 105/ml) and stimulated with polyIC (20 μg/ml) in the presence or absence of recombinant human IL-2 (rhIL-2) (100 U/ml) for 72 h and proliferation Interleukin-2 receptor was assessed. In-vitro proliferation was determined by culture of human PBMC (1 × 106 cells/ml) in the presence or absence of human MSC (1 × 105 cells/ml) in cRPMI. In mitogen-driven assays, cultures were stimulated with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) (Sigma-Aldrich) at 5 μg/ml. Cell culture supernatants were

sampled for the presence of human TNF-α and IFN-γ by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (R&D Systems). After 72 h, [3H]-thymidine (Amersham Biosciences, Buckinghamshire, UK) at 0·5 μCi/ml was added. Cultures were harvested 6 h later using an automatic cell harvester and radioactive incorporation, assessed as previously described [16, 36]. In-vivo proliferation was measured by labelling human PBMC with 10 μM carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) (Invitrogen), washed twice with PBS and administered at 6·3 × 105 g−1 to irradiated NSG mice on day 0. IFN-γ-stimulated MSC (4·4 × 104 g−1) were delivered concurrently with PBMC on day 0. After 5 days the lungs, livers and spleens were harvested from each mouse. A single-cell suspension of 1 × 106 cells/ml was counterlabelled with anti-human CD4 APC for 15 min at 4°C. Cells were analysed for CFSE staining and the expression of human CD4 by flow cytometry.