Figure 5.

Identification of P. chabaudi components that inhibit LPS-induced DC maturation. (a-c) DCs (2 × 10⁶) were treated for 24 h with uninfected RBC (open bars) or infected RBC (pRBC; filled bars) that were untreated or fixed before stimulation with LPS (1 μg/ml) for 18 h. DC activation was characterized by analysis of (a) MHC class II, (b) CD40, and (c) CD86 expression on CD11c⁺ DC surfaces by FACS (*p ≤ 0.05 pRBC versus RBC, +p ≤ 0.05 fixed pRBC versus fixed RBC). (d,e) DCs (5 × 10⁵) were incubated with intact erythrocytes or RBC ghosts from uninfected (open bars) or infected erythrocytes (filled bars), for 24 h before stimulation with LPS for 18 h. DC activation was characterized by analysis of (d) MHC class II and (e) CD40 expression on the DC surface by FACS (*p ≤ 0.05 pRBC versus RBC).