Figure 1.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-derived tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDCs) exhibit a semimature phenotype and are comparable to healthy control (HC) tolDCs. (A) HC- and RA-derived DC expression of maturation-associated markers of immature DCs (iDCs), mature DCs (matDCs) and tolDCs. Histograms are representative of five independent donors. (B) Mean expression of HC and RA patient tolDCs and matDCs is shown relative to iDCs. Expression of each marker (geometric mean fluorescence intensity (GMFI)) was normalised relative to expression by iDCs (100%) for each independent donor. Phenotypic analysis of maturation-associated markers was determined 24 h after maturation with 1 µg/ml monophosphoryl lipid A in the presence or absence of dexamethasone and vitamin D3. Data are expressed as the mean±SEM for five independent donors. Mean GMFI for HC iDCs vs RA iDCs are: MHC II, 949.8±161.3 vs 1110±178.3; CD40, 19.8±7.4 vs 20.4±6.6; CD80, 12.3±1.7 vs 11.2±1.4; CD83, 7.9±0.1 vs 9.4±1.2; CD86, 11.5±2.5 vs 21.6±5.8; toll-like receptor 2 (TLR-2), 89.9±11.1 vs 76.2±4.2. No significant difference was detected between RA and HC DC populations. *p≤0.05, **p≤0.01, ***p≤0.001 (analysis of variance). MHC, major histocompatibility complex; TLR-2, toll-like receptor-2.