Figure 1.

α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer)-stimulated invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells express c-Maf. (A) T_H0, T_H1, T_H2, and T_H17 cells were re-stimulated with plate-bound anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (mAb) for 24 h. Purified CD1d/PBS-57⁺TCRβ⁺ iNKT cells were cultured in vitro for 3 days. The transcript levels of c-Maf were determined by quantitative PCR and normalized against β-actin expression in each sample (n = 3). (B) α-GalCer or PBS was injected into the tail veins of WT C57BL/6J mice. Splenocytes and lymph node (LN) cells of the injected mice were collected 2 h later and subjected first to surface staining with PBS-57-loaded CD1d tetramer, anti-TCR-β mAb, and then intracellular staining for c-Maf. Representative FACS plots are shown. NS, not significant, determined by unpaired t-test, two-tailed (n = 3).