Paeoniflorin (PF) is a monoterpene glycoside and exhibits multiple effects, including anti-inflammation and immunoregulation. mice were administered with 200?ng pertussis toxin (Merck, 516562, CA, USA) dissolved in PBS. Mice were observed daily and scored for disease severity on a scale of 0C5: 0, no clinical sign; 1, limp tail; 2, one hindlimb paralysis; 3, bilateral hindlimb paralysis; 4, hindlimb and forelimb paralysis; 5, moribund or dead. PF was administered i.p. at 100?g/mouse daily starting from 4d before immunization, and equal volume of PBS was served as control. Histopathological 112828-09-8 supplier analysis Spinal cords from PF-treated and control EAE mice were immediately immersed in 4% paraformaldehyde for fixation. After 2 days later, the specimen was embedded in paraffin for sectioning. The paraffin sections (5?m thickness) were stained with H&E and luxol fast blue for assessing the inflammatory cell infiltration and demyelination, respectively. Isolation of Mononuclear cells To isolate the infiltrating mononuclear cells (MNCs) from spinal cord and brain (referred to as CNS hereafter), cardiac perfusion with PBS was first performed in EAE mice to eliminate the peripheral blood cells. The dissociated CNS tissue was gently grinded to prepare for cell suspension. MNCs from CNS were isolated using Percoll (GE Healthcare, 17C0891C02, MD, USA) density gradient (37% and 70%) centrifugation. MOG-specific CD4+ T cells response ex vivo Spleens from PF-treated and control EAE mice were removed and prepared for single-cell suspensions. CD4+ T cells were magnetically sorted by CD4 (L3T4) MicroBeads (Miltenyi biotech, 130C049C201, CA, USA) according to the manufacturers instruction (the purity >95%). Purified CD4+ T cells (2??105) were cultured in triplicate with MOG35C55 peptide (20?g/ml), and 2??105 -ray irradiated splenocytes isolated from na?ve mice were used as APCs. The cells were cultured at 37?C in 5% CO2 for 72?h in RPMI-1640 (Gibco, 11875C093, CA, USA) medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco, 10099C141), 100?IU/ml penicillin, 100?g/ml streptomycin, 2?mM L-glutamine (Gibco, 25030C081), 10?mM Hepes (Gibco, 15630C080), and 55?mM 112828-09-8 supplier -mercaptoethanol (Gibco, 21985C023). 0.5?Ci 3H-thymidine (Institute of Shanghai atomic energy, Shanghai, China) was added to cells at the last 16?h of culture. 3H-thymidine incorporation was detected as cpm using a Betaplate counter (PerkinElmer, MA, USA). Th cell differentiation in vitro CD4+CD62L+T Cell Isolation Kit II (Miltenyi Biotech, 130C093C227) was used to sort na?ve CD4+ T cells in spleen isolated from na?ve mice. Purified na?ve 112828-09-8 supplier CD4+ T cells (1.5??105 per well) were stimulated with plate-bound anti-CD3 Ab (1?g/ml; BD biosciences, 553057, 145C2C11, CA, USA) and soluble anti-CD28 Ab (1?g/ml; BD biosciences, 553294, 37.51) under Th17-polarizing condition in different concentrations of PF (0, 1, and 5?M) and cultured for 3 days to induce Th17 cell differentiation. Th17-polarizing condition was as follows: 10?ng/ml IL-6 (R&D System, 406-ML-005, MN, USA), 1?ng/ml TGF- Mouse monoclonal to CD44.CD44 is a type 1 transmembrane glycoprotein also known as Phagocytic Glycoprotein 1(pgp 1) and HCAM. CD44 is the receptor for hyaluronate and exists as a large number of different isoforms due to alternative RNA splicing. The major isoform expressed on lymphocytes, myeloid cells and erythrocytes is a glycosylated type 1 transmembrane protein. Other isoforms contain glycosaminoglycans and are expressed on hematopoietic and non hematopoietic cells.CD44 is involved in adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells,stromal cells and the extracellular matrix (PeproTech, 100-21C, NJ, USA), 50?ng/ml IL-23 (PeproTech, 200-23), 10?g/ml anti-IFN- (eBioscience, 16-7311-85, CA, USA), and 10?g/ml anti-IL-4 (eBioscience, 16-7041-85). Isolation of DCs from mouse spleen For isolation of spleen DCs, spleens were cut into small pieces and incubated for 1?h at 37?C with 1?mg/ml collagenase D (Roche, 11088866001, CA, USA) and 0.02?mg/ml DNase I (Roche, 11284932001) in RPMI-1640. Single cell suspension was prepared by grinding the small pieces through a 70?m cell strainer. Then cells were blocked by FcR Blocking Reagent (eBioscience, 14-0161-85, 93). CD11c+ cells were magnetically sorted by CD11c MicroBeads (Miltenyi Biotech, 130-097-059) according to the manufacturers instruction. Bone marrow-derived DCs generation Bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) were generated from mice bone marrow cells as described previously56. Briefly, the bone marrow was isolated from femurs and red blood cells were lysed. The bone marrow cells were incubated with 10?ng/ml GM-CSF and IL-4 (PeproTech, 315-03 and 214C14, respectively) for 5 days in different concentrations of PF (0, 1, and 5?M) to obtain BMDCs. To induce cytokine secretion or Th17-polarizing, BMDCs with or without PF treatment were stimulated with 100?ng/ml LPS (Sigma-Aldrich, L6529, MO, USA) for 18?h. Flow cytomerty For surface markers, cells were stained with fluorescent-conjugated antibodies (Abs) or isotype control Abs at the recommended dilution for 30?min in 4?C away from light. MNCs purified from CNS were stained with Abs to CD3 (eBioscience, 11C0031, 145C2C11), CD4 (eBioscience, 48C0041, GK1.5), CD8 (eBioscience, 25C0081, 53C6.7), B220 (eBioscience, 12C0452, RA3C6B2), and CD11b (eBioscience, 17C0012, M1/70), while splenocytes and BMDCs were stained with CD11c (eBioscience, 12C0114, N418), CD80 (eBioscience, 11C0801, 16C10A1), CD86 (eBioscience, 11C0862, GL1), CD40 (eBioscience, 17C0401, 1C10), and.