Figure 2.

B-lymphocyte proliferation assay. (A) CFSE analysis of proliferation responses of splenic B-lymphocytes from 6-week-old female NOD, 116C-NOD and NOD-PerIg mice (n = 4 per group, with two replicates for each experimental condition). Splenic B-lymphocytes were purified, labeled with CFSE and cultured in the presence (narrow line) of LPS, anti-CD40 + IL-4, anti-BCR stimuli or without stimulus (bold line) for 48 h. (B) IL-4, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-10 cytokine concentrations were assessed in culture supernatants of purified B lymphocytes cultured in the same conditions as described above. (a) = Amount of IL-4 added to the culture media in absence of cells. Bars show the SD of the proliferation index or from the cytokine concentration values. Mann-Whitney U was used for analysis and statistically significant differences are shown as *P < 0.05.