FIG 4.

Trophic forms suppress the expression of multiple factors related to antigen presentation, including MHC class II and the costimulatory molecule CD40. The data in panels A and B represent genes in the NanoString panel encoding transcripts related to antigen-processing and presentation (A) or costimulatory molecules (B) with a statistically significant (P < 0.01) 2-fold or greater increase in expression in BMDCs treated with trophic forms compared to levels in unstimulated BMDCs. The relative gene expression after 8 h of treatment was calculated as the log2 value of the quotient of the expression value of treated cells divided by that of the untreated cells. Significant differences (P < 0.01) between results are indicated as follows: *, between BMDCs treated with trophic forms and unstimulated cells; †, between cells treated with trophic forms and cells treated with mixed P. murina organisms; ‡, between cells treated with trophic forms and those treated with curdlan. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate surface expression of MHC class II (C and E) and CD40 (D and F) on the surface of BMDCs following 24 h of treatment with trophic forms, mixed P. murina organisms, and/or the fungal cell wall preparation zymosan. Flow cytometry data represent the means ± standard deviations of three biological replicates per group and are representative of two separate experiments. One-way ANOVA with Student-Newman-Keuls post hoc tests was used to compare the surface expression of MHC class II or CD40 protein among the groups: *, P ≤ 0.05; **, P ≤ 0.01; ***, P ≤ 0.001.