Purity of cell preparation I-BET-762 was assessed by FACS using CD14 as a monocyte

marker. About 80–95% cells were CD14+ and viability was >98% according to Trypan blue exclusion staining (Sigma Aldrich, Sent Lois, MO, USA). The cellular preparation also contained mDC but no T, B or NK cells (data not shown). mDC were isolated from buffy coats (24 h) obtained from healthy blood donors following the guidelines and standards for blood donation approved by Blood and Tissue Bank Ethical Committee. PBMC were separated by Ficoll-Paque PLUS centrifugation and CD3+ cells were depleted by RosetteSep™ human CD3 depletion cocktail (StemCell Technologies). DC were enriched by negative selection using the human Pan DC pre-enrichment kit (StemCell Technologies) that contained anti-CD3, anti-CD9, anti-CD14, anti-CD16, anti-CD19, anti-CD34, anti-CD56, anti-CD66b and anti-glycophorin A mAb. Cells were then incubated with anti-CD4-FITC, anti-CD3-PE, anti-CD14-PE, anti-CD11c-PeCy5 mAb and mDC, defined as CD4+CD3−CD14neg/lowCD11c+ cells 39, were sorted in a FACSAria cell-sorting system (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA, USA). The purity and viability of purified see more mDC in all samples was greater than 99% according to expression of specific markers and Trypan blue exclusion staining, respectively. Monocytes and mDC were resuspended and

cultured at 1×106 cells/mL in RPMI-1640/glutamax source medium (Invitrogen Life Technologies, Paisley, UK) supplemented with 10% (v/v) heat-inactivated

fetal bovine serum (FBS) with low endotoxin level (Greiner Bio-One GmbH, Frickenhausen, Germany) for various times at 37°C in 5% CO2 atmosphere. To study cell activation through the CD300e receptor, an agonistic anti-CD300e mAb (clone UP-H2, IgG1) was used 20. Reactivity of UP-H1 Nitroxoline and UP-H2 with CD300f was previously ruled out 16. In addition, a putative cross-reactivity of these mAb with other CD300 members (CD300a, CD300b, CD300c), reported to be expressed by hematopoietic cell types not stained by UP-H mAb, was also formally excluded. To this end, COS-7 cells were transfected with the following plasmids: pFLAG-CMV-1-CMRF-35 (CD300c) and IRp60-VR1012 (CD300a), both kindly provided by Dr. Roberto Biassoni (Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy), or pMXs-IP-hLMIR5 (CD300b) kindly provided by Dr. Toshio Kitamura (The University of Tokyo, Japan). Transfected cells were analyzed by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry with appropriate specific reagents, including an anti-IRP60 mAb kindly provided by Dr. D. Pende (IST, Genoa, Italy). Anti-CD300e mAb (UP-H1 and UP-H2) did not stain these transfectants, thus ruling out their cross-reactivity with the corresponding CD300 members.