Journal: Bioactive Materials

Article Title: Countering postoperative immune suppression with a self-assembling dendritic cell nanovaccine

doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2026.05.005

Figure Lengend Snippet: BAITs promote DC activation and antigen presentation via enhanced lysosomal processing. (A) Schematic for MHC Ⅰ/Ⅱ immunostaining. DCs were treated with antigens or BAITs (12 h), then incubated in fresh medium (with TGFβ) for 24 h before staining. (B, C) Quantification of surface MHC Ⅰ (B) and MHC Ⅱ (C) on DCs (n = 8; n.s. is P > 0.05, ∗∗∗ is P < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗ is P < 0.0001 by one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc test). (D, E) Representative immunofluorescence images of DCs (blue: nuclei; yellow: LAMP1; green: MHC Ⅰ; magenta: MHC Ⅱ). BAIT-treated DCs show strong surface MHC and minimal intracellular antigen signal, whereas antigen-treated DCs show retained antigen (red) and weak surface MHC signal. (F–H) Flow cytometric analysis of MHC Ⅰ (F), MHC Ⅱ (G), and CD80 (H) expression on murine CD11c + DCs after exposure to antigens or BAITs. (I) Quantification of MHC Ⅰ, MHC Ⅱ, and CD80 expression in DCs by flow cytometry (n = 3; ∗∗∗ is P < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗ is P < 0.0001 by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc test). (J) Heatmap of DC activation-related gene expression after treatment with antigens or BAITs, highlighting upregulation of maturation and antigen presentation genes and downregulation of immunosuppressive genes by BAITs (n = 3). Data are presented as mean ± SD.

Article Snippet: After treatment, the cells were washed twice with PBS and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min. For intracellular protein staining, fixed cells were permeabilized with 0.1% Triton X-100 at room temperature for 10 min. Next, the cells were blocked with 2% BSA and incubated with rat CoraLite Plus 488 anti-mouse LAMP1 antibody (1:200) and rabbit anti-mouse pSAP (1:200) antibody overnight at 4 °C.

Techniques: Activation Assay, Immunopeptidomics, Immunostaining, Incubation, Staining, Immunofluorescence, Expressing, Flow Cytometry, Gene Expression