Figure 1. DCs treated with SEA polarise Th2 responses in vitro.

(A) Expression of CD86, HLA-DR and HLA-A, -B, -C on the surface of immature DCs (blue, 2^nd row) and DCs treated for 24 h with LPS (grey, 3^rd row), Poly(I:C) (grey, 4^th row) or SEA (black, bottom row), compared with isotype matched control staining (top row). Data from one representative donor of 6 tested. (B) Percent of DCs expressing CD86, comparing immature DCs and DCs treated for 24 h with LPS, Poly (I:C) or SEA. (C) Fold change in gMFI of HLA-DR (left) and HLA-A, -B, -C (right) in DCs after 24 h treatment with LPS, Poly(I:C) or SEA, normalised to the level of expression in immature DCs. (D) Concentration of IL-12p70 in supernatants of immature DCs and DCs treated for 24 h with LPS, Poly (I:C) or SEA. (E) IL-4 and IFN-γ production by CD4+ T cells stimulated with PMA and ionomycin after 13 d culture with treated DCs in the presence of staphylococcal enterotoxin B; dot plots from one representative donor (of 5 tested) gated on live, singlet, CD4+ T cells. (F) Ratio of IL-4 positive over IFN-γ positive CD4+ T cells. In all plots circles represent data points from individual donors and bars show mean (± standard deviation) of 4-6 independent donors. *p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001; (B-D) analysed by Kruskal wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparisons, (E) by repeated measures 1-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons.