Figure 2.

T1IFN-β treatment in MS patients promoted iNKT cell function. The iNKT cells purified from T1IFN-β-treated MS patients (T1IFN-β MS; n = 8) secreted significantly larger amounts of IL-4 (P ≤ 0·01), IL-5 (P ≤ 0·01) and IFN-γ (P ≤ 0·05) compared to their counterparts from untreated healthy controls (n = 8) or the same MS patients before they started treatment (untreated MS; n = 8). IL-10 secretion increased slightly, but not significantly, in T1IFN-β-treated MS patients compared to untreated controls or MS patients (P ≤ 0·09). Vα24⁺ iNKT cells were expanded by culturing PBMC with αGalCer (100 ng/ml) and cytokines (recombinant human IL-7 and IL-15) and purified by magnetic bead separation with anti-Vα24 monoclonal antibody. iNKT cells (2 × 10⁴ per well) were plated on a 96-well plate and stimulated with 2 × 10⁵αGalCer-pulsed DCs. Supernatants were collected after 7 days and cytokines were simultaneously measured in the supernatants of iNKT cell cultures by a multiplexed flow cytometric assay (Cytometric Bead Array).