Figure 3. Priming with IL-7 or IL-15 lowers tolerance against self-antigens.

(a) PBMCs from HLA-DR4⁺ donors were cultured for seven days with native or citrullinated vimentin peptides, melanocyte glycoprotein gp100 peptides or VZV IE63 peptide pool following conditioning with IL-7 or IL-15 for 24 h. ³H-thymidine was added at day 6. (b) PBMCs from non-HLA-DR4⁺ donor were cultured for seven days with native or citrullinated vimentin peptidesfollowing conditioning with cytokines. Data are shown as mean ± SD counts per minute (cpm) of triplicates wells and are representative of four experiments with PBMC from HLA-DR4⁺ and one experiment with PBMC from HLA-DR4⁻ individual.