Figure 7.

Mature DCs, differentiated and matured in the presence of the cathepsin X inhibitor, exhibit reduced migration and T cell-stimulatory capacity. The capacity of mature DCs to migrate was evaluated in 5 μm transwell plates. The chemotactic response of mature DCs to fibrinogen or fibronectin + MCP-1 (50 ng/ml) is presented as the percentage of transmigrated DCs in the bottom compartment of a transwell plate. Mature DCs, differentiated and matured in the presence of the cathepsin X inhibitor, 0.5 μM, show reduced migration ability compared with untreated, mature DCs, irrespective of chemotactic stimulus (A). The cathepsin X inhibitor was not present in the migration assay. Bars represent mean percentage of migrated DCs ± sd. Mature DCs were pretreated with mitomycin C and subsequently cocultured with purified, allogeneic T cells or mononuclear cells (MNC; B). Samples were treated in quadruplicate. Results are the means ± sd of at least three independent assays.