T-cell clones were expanded every 2–3 wk using a mix of IMDM supplemented with 10% FBS and 10% TCGF, irradiated PBMC from five different donors and irradiated autologous B-LCL selleck chemicals loaded

with 5 μg/mL cognate peptide. T-cell cultures (25 000–50 000 cells/well) were tested on pulsed autologous APC (monocytes or irradiated autologous B-LCL) for the recognition of M1 peptides (5 μg/mL) and protein (10 μg/mL) in triplicate in a 3-day proliferation assay 38. For generation of monocytes, PBMC were seeded in flat bottom 96-well plates (Greiner bio-one, The Netherlands) and adherent PBMC were cultured for 3 days in X-vivo medium (BioWhittaker) containing 800 IU/mL GM-CSF (Invitrogen, UK) before use. For experiments with influenza virus, autologous monocytes were infected at a MOI of 1 with A/Wisconsin/67/2005 for 5 h before addition of M1-specific T-cell clone. After 48 h supernatant was harvested and stored at −20°C for cytokine analysis. During the last 16 h of culture 0.5 μCi/well [3H]thymidine (Perkin Elmer, USA) was added to measure proliferation 17. Antigen-specific IFN-γ and IL-10 production was measured by ELISA according to manufacturer protocol (Sanquin,

The Netherlands). The cut-off of the ELISA was based on the start of linearity of the standard curve, which was 100 pg/mL for IFN-γ and 50 pg/mL INCB024360 manufacturer for IL-10. Specific responses were positive when they were at least twice the level of control antigen and above the cut-off level. For the analysis of cytokine production on a single-cell level T-cell clones were stimulated for 4 h with peptide-loaded autologous monocytes and were subsequently stained for IL-10 and IFN-γ according to manufacturer protocol (IL-10 and IFN-γ secretion

assay; Miltenyi Biotech) and analyzed by flow cytometry. For anti-CD3-based suppression assays responder CD4+CD25− cells were isolated from PBMC as described before 5. CD8+ lymphocytes were isolated using magnetic Dynal beads (Invitrogen, USA) and used as CD8+ responder cells where indicated; 1×105 responder cells were cultured with M1-specific T-cell clone at different ratios in the presence of 1×104 irradiated B-LCL and 1 μg/mL next agonistic anti-CD3 antibody (OKT-3, Ortho Biotech, USA). Proliferation and cytokine production was determined as described above. Cell surface activation markers were stained 24 h after stimulation and analyzed by flow cytometry. For antigen-dependent suppression experiments CD4+CD25− responder cells were stained with 5 μM CFSE (Invitrogen) for 15 min at 37°C. M1-specific T-cell clone was stained with PKH26 according to the manufacturer’s protocol (Sigma), treated with Mitomycin C (50 μg/mL; Kyowa, Japan) for 1 h and irradiated (2000 Rad) to prevent proliferation of the clone.