Figure 7. The adoptive transfer of CD11b⁺ DCs from CD11c-specificDNA-PKcsKnockout Mice have an Impaired Ability to Induce HDM-mediated Airway Inflammation.

A. DNA-PKcs^fl/fl and DNA-PKcs^fl/fl; CD11c-Cre donor mice received a single intranasal dose of 100 µg of HDM extract or saline and after 4 days, mediastinal lymph nodes were removed and CD11c⁺/CD11b⁺/SiglecF⁻/MHCII⁺ DCs were isolated by flow cytometry. 2.5 × 10⁴ CD11c⁺/CD11b⁺/SiglecF⁻/MHCII⁺ DCs were adoptively transferred to wild type C57BL6 recipient mice by intranasal administration on day 4 and daily intranasal HDM challenges (25 µg) were administered on days 13 through 18 to all recipient mice. Mice were sacrificed for end-point analysis on day 19. B. The number of total BALF inflammatory cells and inflammatory cell subtypes in recipients of adoptively transferred CD11b⁺ DCs (n = 6 – 10, * P < 0.05, one way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparison test). C. Representative histologic lung sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS). Scale bars denote 100 µm for the x200 images and 20 µm for the x1000 images. D. Quantification of mucous cell metaplasia. (n = 10, * P = 0.0005, unpaired t test). 48.7 + 3.3 airways were analyzed per mouse. E. Serum HDM-specific IgE (n = 6 – 10 mice, * P < 0.05, one way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparison test). F. Cytokine secretion by ex vivo cultures of mediastinal lymph node cells that had been re-stimulated with HDM (100 µg/ml) (n = 6 – 8 mice, * P < 0.01, one way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparison test). Results are pooled data from two independent experiments.