Constitutive binding of Gas6 to the surface of airway macrophages through specific interaction with Axl
(a) Flow cytometric analysis of Axl and Gas6 co-expression on airway macrophages. Flow cytometric analysis of (b) Axl and (c) Gas6 expression on airway macrophages isolated from wild type (WT) or Axl−/− mice. (d) Relative mRNA expression of Gas6 in purified peritoneal macrophages, lung monocyte-macrophages (mono-mac) and airway macrophages. Symbols represent data from individual mice and lines represent the mean value. (e) Relative mRNA expression of Gas6 in M-CSF- or GM-CSF-differentiated BMDMs. (f,g) Analysis of Axl-dependent binding of Gas6 to M-CSF- or GM-CSF-differentiated BMDMs isolated from WT or Axl−/− mice. BMDMs were left untreated or were incubated with recombinant Gas6 for 1 h and then surface levels of (f) Axl and (g) Gas6 were analysed by flow cytometry. (f) Specific staining, solid line/open. Isotype control, dotted line/shaded. (g) +Gas6, solid line/open. −Gas6, dotted line/shaded. Data are representative of at least two independent experiments with four mice.**P<0.01 versus corresponding group; unpaired t test.