pβCD
are not genotoxic and poorly induce pro-inflammatory
responses. (A, B) THP1 cells were incubated for 24 h with different
concentrations of pβCD for the evaluation of genotoxicity. The
micronucleus assay (A) was used to detect any damage that occurred
during cell division (mitomycin was used as positive control), while
the comet assay (B) was used to evaluate DNA strand breaks (methyl
methanesulfonate was used as positive control). (C) BMDC were incubated
overnight with pβCD or were inoculated with BCG (MOI = 1), as
a positive control. After overnight incubation, cells were stained
with FITC-conjugated antibodies. The FITC signal gated on CD11c+ cells shows the surface expression level of co-stimulatory
molecules (CD40, CD80, CD86) and MHC-I or MHC-II molecules, as phenotypic
dendritic cell maturation markers. (D) As a hallmark of functional
dendritic cell maturation, IL-1β and TNF-α were quantified
by ELISA in the supernatants of the same cultures, described in (C).
Symbols ** and *** denote p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively.