Journal: PLoS ONE

Article Title: Networked T Cell Death following Macrophage Infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038488

Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Addition of the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK mitigated cell death induced by low MOI and high MOI-infected macrophage supernatants (shaded bars, infection + and ++ respectively), as well as background cell death observed in the uninfected control supernatants (closed bars, infection -). Cell death in infected supernatants was not mitigated by coincubation with blocking antibodies to TNF-α (B) or Fas (C), and in each case was significantly higher than in uninfected control supernatants (closed bars). Cell death induced by positive controls (D) (1 µM Staurosporine, 5 ng/ml recombinant human TNF-α +0.2 µg/ml cycloheximide and 10 ng/ml recombinant human Fas ligand) was in each case significantly reduced by coincubation with the corresponding inhibitor (open bars). Data shown in each panel are from one representative experiment, showing mean percentage cell death ± SEM from triplicate incubations. ** = p<0.01, *** = p<0.001, Student’s t test relative to uninfected control (A–C), or positive control relative to inhibitor (D).

Article Snippet: In positive control experiments for Fas ligand-mediated cell killing, cells were incubated in the presence of 10 ng/ml recombinant human Fas ligand (R&D systems), crosslinked with 10 μg/ml anti-6× Histidine (R&D systems).

Techniques: Infection, Control, Blocking Assay, Recombinant, Positive Control

Journal: Journal of Biological Chemistry

Article Title: dlk1/FA1 Regulates the Function of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Modulating Gene Expression of Pro-inflammatory Cytokines and Immune Response-related Factors

doi: 10.1074/jbc.m607530200

Figure Lengend Snippet: FIGURE 5. Dlk1 expression synergizes the effect of LPS-induced cytokines in hMSC cells and stimulates the B cell proliferation. A, control and hMSC-dlk1 cells were stimulated with 100 ng/ml LPS for 24 h. Total RNA was isolated and analyzed for the expression of the indicated genes by real time PCR. Expression of each target gene was normalized to -actin. Data are shown as means S.D. of three independent experiments. *, p 0.05; **, p 0.005 versus control cells (hMSC-TERT) induced with LPS. B, CD19-purified human peripheral blood B lymphocytes were cultured in CM obtained from hMSC-TERT (control cells) or hMSC-dlk1 cells as described under “Experimental Procedures” in the absence and the presence of 2.5 or 10 g/ml CD40L. Cell proliferation was measured with XTT-based assay. Stimulation in the cell proliferation was represented as fold induction over nonstimulated cells cultured in the corresponding CM. The bars are the means S.D. of five independent experiments. *, p 0.05; **, p 0.005 versus cultured cells in control/CM.

Article Snippet: Cells were then resuspended at 0.5 106/ml in RPMI (as a positive control), serum-free conditioned medium from hMSC-TERT (control/CM), or hMSC-dlk1 (dlk1/CM) supplemented with 10% FCS and stimulated with 20 ng/ml recombinant human IL-4 (R&D Systems, Abingdon, UK) and the indicated concentrations of recombinant human CD40L (R&D Systems) or left untreated (nonstimulated).

Techniques: Expressing, Control, Isolation, Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Purification, Cell Culture, XTT Assay