Fig. 6.

Kidney CD11c⁺MHCII⁺F4/80⁻ DCs are functional and their numbers correlate with kidney disease. (A) Indicated kidney cell subsets were sorted from 5- to 7.5-mo-old mice, stimulated overnight with R848 (or media), pulsed with 50 μg/mL ovalbumin and cocultured with CFSE-stained Sle1.OT-II splenocytes for 5 d. The percentages of CD4⁺TCRVα2⁺ T-cell proliferation were assessed with flow cytometry by CFSE dilution. (B) Cumulative data from A. Each circle represents kidney cells sorted from an individual mouse (n = 3–4), except for Sle1, where CD11c⁺MHCII⁺F4/80⁻ cells were isolated and pooled from two mice each (total of four mice). A paired t test was used to assess statistical significance. (C) Supernatants from R848 (or media) stimulated CD11c⁺MHCII⁺F4/80⁻ DCs were analyzed by Luminex. (D) Numbers of sorted cells retrieved from kidneys of each strain (n = 5 for Sle1Tg7 and CD11cSle1Tg7, for Sle1 7 mice were pooled into three groups). Bars represent mean + SEM. *P < 0.05; ns, not significant (one-way ANOVA). Graphs showing the correlation between GN score (E) or BUN (F) and proportion of CD11c⁺MHCII⁺F4/80⁻ DCs. The P value and r were computed by nonparametric Spearman correlation.