Detectable levels of IL-6 and IL-1β were measured in culture supernatants of PstS1-treated, but not Ag85B-treated DCs (Fig. 4C and E). PstS1 also induced release of low amounts of IL-23 (Fig. 4D). We asked whether PstS1 stimulated differentially

CD8α+ and CD8α− DCs, the two major subsets of splenic DCs, endowed with distinctive functional features [30]. Although PstS1 stimulated the phenotypic maturation in both cell types (Fig. 5A), it induced IL-23 and IL-1β selectively in CD8α− DCs and greater levels of IL-6 in this cell subset, with respect to CD8α+ DCs in vivo (Fig. 5B) and in vitro (not shown). Moreover, although CD8α+ and CD8α− DCs treated with PstS1 STA-9090 manufacturer induced similar proliferative response of Ag85B-specific memory T cells (Fig. 5C), PstS1-pulsed CD8α− DCs induced significantly higher levels of T cell released IFN-γ, IL-17, and IL-22, with respect to PstS1-pulsed CD8α+ DCs (Fig. 5D–F). Since Syk kinase-mediated PLX3397 chemical structure secretion of IL-6 and IL-23 by DCs is involved in the development

of Th17 and Th1 responses to some pathogens [31], we asked whether PstS1-induced activation of Th17 and Th1 response was dependent on DC-released IL-6 and IL-23. Thus, we exposed DCs to piceatannol, an inhibitor of Syk signaling, prior to treatment with PstS1. Expectedly, piceatannol treatment blocked PstS1-induced IL-6 production (Fig. 6A) and IL-23p19 RNA expression (Supporting Information Fig. 2A). In contrast, piceatannol preexposure neither blocked IL-1β production (Fig. 6B) nor prevented DC phenotypic maturation (Fig. 6C) induced by PstS1. Ag85B-specific T lymphocytes responding to piceatannol-treated PstS1-pulsed DCs exhibited significantly lower levels of IFN-γ, with respect to those responding to untreated PstS1-loaded

DCs (Fig. 6D). Accordingly, a neutralizing Ab to IL-6 also inhibited the capacity of PstS1-loaded DCs to induce IFN-γ production by Ag85B-specific memory T cells, while an anti-IL-1β Ab was ineffective (Table 1). In contrast, neither piceatannol, anti-IL-6, or anti-IL-1β blocking Abs prevented PstS1-treated DCs from stimulating IL-17 release by responder Ag85B-specific selleck screening library T cells. (Fig. 6E and Table 1). IL-22 release was not affected by piceatannol pretreatment of DCs (Fig. 6F), whereas blocking Ab to IL-6 or IL-1β determined a slight but significant inhibition of secreted IL-22 (38 ± 4 and 34.5 ± 0.5%, respectively; Table 1). The proliferative response of Ag85B-specific memory T lymphocytes co-cultured with piceatannol-treated PstS1-pulsed DCs was similar to that found with untreated PstS1-loaded DCs (Supporting Information Fig. 2B). Since several Mtb lipoproteins bind TLR2 [14-18], we also tested the DC response to PstS1 in absence of functional TLR2.