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. 2014 Aug 6;5:4602. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5602

Figure 9. Leptin cooperates with IL-6 to promote Th17 differentiation.

Figure 9

(a,b) CD4+CD25− T cells were purified from spleens of WT mice and cultured for 4 days under Th17 differentiation conditions in the presence or absence adipose tissue fluids (a) or 3T3-L1 adipocyte conditioned medium (b). After Th17 differentiation, T cells were stimulated with PMA and ionomycin, and analysed for IL-17 expression by intracellular staining. Contour plots depict IL-17-producing CD4 T cells. Numbers indicate the percentages of cells in the quadrants. (c) The levels of indicated adipokines from adipose tissue of WT and T-HGK cKO mice were determined by ELISA assays. (d) The IL-17 levels in supernatants of the primary T cells stimulated with leptin and/or IL-6 for 3 days were determined by ELISA assays. (e) IL-6 and IL-17 levels in the sera of 16-week-old T-HGK cKO (CD4-Cre;HGKf/f) mice and T-HGK/LepR cKO (CD4-Cre;HGKf/f;leptin receptorf/f) mice were measured by ELISA assays. n=6. (f) GTT tests were performed on 16-week-old T-HGK cKO mice and T-HGK/LepR cKO mice. Glucose levels were plotted versus times post glucose injection. (g) The leptin levels in adipose tissue of mice after IL-6 neutralization. Data shown are representatives of three (a,b,d) and two (c,e,f,g) independent experiments. Data are expressed as mean±s.e.m. *P-value<0.05; **P-value<0.01; ***P-value<0.001 (two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test).