Figure 3.

pI:C stimulation of LCs results in superior antigen cross-presentation. (a) 1 × 10⁵ T2 cells were incubated with a 16 aa MART-1 peptide, the minimal CD8 epitope or no peptide, after which cells were analyzed for surface HLA-A2 expression by flow cytometry. The data represent the average of three experiments ± SD. **p < 0.01. (b) In total, 2 × 10⁴ HLA-A2⁺ LCs were incubated with a 16 aa MART-1 peptide, the minimal CD8 epitope or no peptide for 30 min, washed and co-cultured with 1 × 10⁵ MART-1-specific CD8⁺ T cells. After 24 h of co-culture, T-cell activation was measured by IFN-γ ELISA analysis of the supernatants. The data represent the average of two experiments ± SD. **p < 0.01. (c). Human LCs were incubated with the synthetic long MART-1 peptide and indicated TLR ligands for 3 h, washed and co-cultured with a MART-1-specific CD8⁺ T-cell clone. After 24 h of co-culture, T-cell activation was measured by IFN-γ ELISA analysis of the supernatants. The data from one representative experiment measured in triplicate is shown, n = 3. *p < 0.05.