Figure 5. BST2+CD3+ thymocytes suppress proliferation of autologous BST2negCD3+ thymocytes.
A suppressor assay was performed by co-culture of different ratios of sorted BST2+CD3+ cells with BST2negCD3+ cells, or without BST2+CD3+ cells. BST2negCD3+ cells were labeled with the dye Violet Tracer. Proliferation was induced by anti-CD3, anti-CD28 in the presence of IL-2 and IL-4. After 5 days, cells were stained with antibodies to CD3, BST2, CCR5, CD45RA, CD4, CD25, CD8 and CD27 and flow cytometry was performed to analyze the loss of the Violet Tracer as a measure of proliferation. Results are shown for the co-culture of BST2negCD3+ cells with BST2+CD3+ cells at a one to one ratio as compared to no BST2+CD3+ thymocytes in three experiments performed in cells from three different tissues.