Figure 4. Determination of factors playing roles in the enhancement of Th17 polarization mediated by MIS-MΦs.

TCR-stimulated T cells were cultured in the absence (a), (c) or presence (b), (d) of monolayer culture of MIS-MΦs under the Th17 polarizing condition. In some experiments, IL-6 or TGF-β was deleted from the Th17 polarizing medium (a), (b), or anti-IL-21 Ab or anti-IL-23 Ab was added to the Th17 polarizing medium (c), (d). After 5-day cultivation, cultured T cells were harvested and subjected to the measurement of intracellular expression of IL-17A and RORγt as described in Fig. 2. The distribution profiles of cells strongly expressing IL-17A are indicated in the inserted red squares. MFI: mean fluorescence intensity of IL-17A expression by cells distributed in the upper right corner. Data are representative of multiple experiments.