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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Dec 9.
Published in final edited form as: J Immunol. 2011 Jul 22;187(5):2677–2687. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1002711

Figure 6. Variations in the expression of α4 and α7 nAChRs by CD4 T cells.

Figure 6

A. The expression of α4 and α7 nAChRs by colonic CD4 T cells in different forms of experimental IBD. The percentages of CD4 T cells expressing α4 or α7 in the colonic inflammatory infiltrates of BALB/c mice with oxazolone (Ox)- and TNBS (T)-induced colitides were computed in ten microscopic fields of double stained cryostat sections of colons from three mice in each group (n = 3). Asterisk = p<0.05 compared to mice with oxazolone-induced colitis.

B. Clinical evaluation of nicotine treatment on the severity of oxazolone colitis in α7 knockout (KO) mice (B6.129S7-Chrna7tm1Bay/J; stock# 003232). The DAI values were computed as described in detail in Materials and Methods. Each point represents the mean ± SD of data obtained in 5 mice. The differences between the nicotine treated and not treated groups are not significant (p>0.05).

C. The effects of IL-4 and IL-12 on α7 nAChR expression. The enriched naïve CD4+CD62L+ T cells from intact BALB/c mice were stimulated with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 antibodies alone (control) or in the presence of 10 ng/ml of either IL-4 or IL-12 for 5 days in culture, and the expression of α7 mRNA and protein was detected by qPCR and ICW, respectively, as detailed in Materials and Methods. The results were expressed as means ± SD of relative receptor mRNA or protein levels in cells exposed to cytokines compared to that in controls, taken as 1. Asterisk = p<0.05 compared to control group, and pound sign = p<0.05 compared to cells exposed to IL-12.