Figure 1. Cell type–dependent BLIMP1 expression.

Frequencies and the level of PRDM1 expression of blood CD14⁺ monocytes (A) and total B cells (B) from leukocytes prepared from female or male individuals with nonrisk (T/T) or risk (C/C) allele. CD14⁺ monocytes were cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and IL-4 for 7 days for the generation of MO-DCs. MO-DCs and freshly isolated total B cells were further processed for total RNA preparation and qPCR for BLIMP1 expression. Relative expression of BLIMP1 was normalized to the level of housekeeping gene, POLR2A. Each dot represents an individual sample, and the bar represents the mean ± SEM (n = 5). (C) BLIMP1 (also known as PRDM1) expression was compared in DC subsets in human blood. Human blood DCs (cDC: Lin^–CD11c⁺CD123^–BDCA2^–; pDC: Lin^–CD11c^–CD123hiBDCA2⁺; BDCA3 DC: Lin^–CD11c⁺CD123^–BDCA2^–CD141⁺) and MO-DCs were purified and total RNAs were extracted. qPCR was performed, and the relative level of BLIMP1 was normalized to the level of the housekeeping gene. Each dot represents an individual sample, and the bar represents the mean ± SEM (n = 4). (D) The level of ATG5 was compared in MO-DCs from female nonrisk (T/T) or risk (C/C) carriers. Relative expression was normalized to the level of the housekeeping gene. Each dot represents an individual sample, and the bar represents the mean ± SEM (n = 5). The nonparametric, Mann-Whitney test was used for statistics.