Fig. 5.

Expansion capacity of iNKT cells with IL-12 and healthy antigen-presenting cells. Fold expansion of iNKT cells after 7 days of ex vivo culture of PBMC from healthy controls and SSc patients with α-GalCer, rhIL-2, and a ± 50 ng/ml IL-12 (HC 20.5 ± 2.7 versus 27.4 ± 3.0, SSc 1.6 ± 1.2 versus 1.5 ± 1.1) or b ± 200,000 healthy B cells (BC) (HC 47.4 ± 14.0 versus 27.5 ± 5.3, SSc 18.2 ± 2.5 versus 22.1 ± 5.6) per well. Bars indicate SD. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01