Fig 8. SOCS-1 silencing enhances cytokine production and stimulatory capacity of mo-DCs.

Mo-DCs from 6 ART-naive patients in the advanced stage of HIV-1 infection were transfected with 5nmol siRNA to SOCS-1 gene for 48 hours. Cells treated with a scrambled non-silencing RNA or untreated cells served as control. Friedmann test was performed for comparisons between treated groups with pairwise comparisons using Dunn's multiple comparison adjustment for an overall p values <0.05. (a) Mo-DCs treated with siSOCS-1 had around 50% decrease in the expression of SOCS-1 gene which was significantly less than the control cells (p<0.05). (b) Culture supernatants were evaluated for the levels of inflammatory cytokines by CBA. The levels of IL-12, IL-10 and TNF-α were higher in SOCS-1 silenced mo-DCs which could reach statistically significant levels for TNF-α (p<0.05). (c).The allostimulatory capacity of SOCS-1 silenced mo-DCs was tested in co-cultures with PBMCs of a healthy individual by CFSE dye dilution assay. The SOCS-1 silenced mo-DCs induced a significantly higher allostimulation as compared to cells that had normal expression of SOCS-1. Data are represented as mean ± SD. *, P<0.05.