Figure 3.

Deficiency in the interferon (IFN)‐γ production of interleukin (IL)‐4^−/– mice by the stimulation of α‐galactosylceramide (α‐GalCer) was caused by natural killer (NK) T cells, not dendritic cells (DC). Purified splenic DC (2 × 10⁵) and NKT cells (2 × 10⁵) from wild‐type (wt) mice and IL‐4^−/– mice were cocultured with or without α‐GalCer. (a) Supernatants were collected at 36 h and the levels of IFN‐γ and IL‐2 were detected by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The bars represent mean ± SE of duplicated samples. (b) The mRNA levels of IFN‐γ were examined 24 h after culture by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. The experiment shown is representative of three independent experiments.