3). CAPRI cell-stimulated cancer cells showed a 40% increase in mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) in HLA class I expression (MFI versus MFI) and a 60% increase

in HLA-DR class II expression (MFI versus MFI) (Fig. 3A). The enhanced MHC class II expression in cancer cells could be pivotal for the Carfilzomib cell line destructive power of CAPRI cells, as CD4 interactions augment cytotoxic T cell responses [34, 35]. Stimulated APC express high levels of MHC class I and class II molecules along with B7 and other costimulatory molecules [36]. We analysed phenotypic markers of CFSE-labelled CD14+ monocytes before activation (day 0) and 1 day (day 1) and 5 days (day 5) after activation (Fig. 4). In CAPRI cells, a considerable number of monocytes lost CD14 expression and matured, as defined by the acquisition of the dendritic cell markers CD1a and GSK3235025 solubility dmso CD83 at day 1 and their marked upregulation at day 5 (Fig. 4B). Upregulation of the costimulatory molecules CD80, CD86 and CD40, and HLA-DR

class II and HLA class I molecules was also observed (Fig. 4B). In only CD3-activated PBMC, the number of CD14+ monocytes and cells expressing CD83 and CD1 remained constant. Upregulation of the costimulatory molecules CD80, CD86, CD40 and HLA class I and of HLA-DR was clearly lower than in CAPRI cell cultures (Fig. 4C). Quantitative analysis of leucocyte subpopulations in CD3-activated PBMC and CAPRI cells from five patients with cancer showed significantly more matured dendritic cells in CAPRI cultures than in CD3-activated PBMC (paired t-test, P = 0.000096) (Table 1) and

a higher percentage of monocytes in CD3-activated PBMC compared to CAPRI cells on day 5 (paired t-test, P = 0.023) (Table 1). Depletion of subpopulations Liothyronine Sodium and the resulting effect on lysis were analysed at the following time points: 1) in unstimulated PBMC before CD3 activation; 2) in unstimulated PBMC to be added to CD3-activated PBMC; and 3) from CAPRI cells before coculture with cancer cells (Fig. 5). Depletion of CD3+CD8+ T lymphocytes at each time point prevented CAPRI cells from developing any lytic capacity (Fig. 5D), and depletion of CD3+CD4+ T cells had the same effect at each time point (Fig. 5C). Depletion of CD14+ monocytes at time point 1) or 2) completely abrogated the lytic activity of CAPRI cells (Fig. 5A), whereas depletion of monocytes at time point 3) did not significantly influence the lysis of cancer cells. Depletion of CD83+ dendritic cells reduced the development of CAPRI cell lytic efficiency by 50% (Fig. 5B). This ‘medium’ contribution to the lytic capacity of CAPRI cells may indicate a continuous supply of contact information and/or of cytokines to T effector cells during cancer cell destruction. The failure of immune responses as a consequence of rudimentary immunogenic information from cancer cells has been previously demonstrated [32, 33].

30 All antifungal agents studied here, regardless of the concentration used, failed to reduce the colony count of viable cells within the biofilms. Although amphotericin B and CAS are determined as fungicidal substances against planktonic cells of Candida spp., no tested antifungal agents showed fungicidal effect defined as >95% killing on biofilm in any of the three development phases. To our knowledge, only one study reported a good correlation between XTT assay and total viable Candida cell counts.31 selleck chemicals llc However,

this study published by Ramage et al. showed a correlation between XTT assay and killing curves with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.9667 for CAS and a fungicidal activity for and

amphotericin B. Fungicidal effects were not observed in our study, but in contrast to Ramage et al. who used a comparably low inoculum of 102 cells/ml,31 densely packed biofilms with inoculum size of 106/ml were used. In conclusion, regardless of the tested development phase, CAS showed distinct activity against C. albicans biofilms particularly at low concentrations. Amphotericin B exhibited a concentration-dependent activity. Posaconazole achieved a reduction on C. albicans biofilm by 20–35%. However, in contrast to CDK activation previous study published by Chandra et al. [11], who showed decrease in the activity of antifungal agents against C. albicans biofilm over time, we found no correlation between antifungal activity and phase of biofilm development. Although no significant difference in metabolic activity of untreated Candida biofilm was found using XTT assay, 48 h-old biofilms were more resistant against amphotericin B and CAS than 24-h or 72-h old biofilms. Due to multifactorial genesis of drug resistance in Candida biofilm,7 it may be hypothesised that several resistance mechanisms may be consequently activated over the time of biofilm development, e.g. time-dependent production of quorum sensing molecules, activation of efflux

pumps, alterations in cell wall assembly and at last, the presence of ‘persister cells’ against CAS and amphotericin oxyclozanide B. Three efflux pump genes MDR1, CDR1 and CDR2 that contribute to fluconazole resistance are activated at early times in biofilm development23,32 and stay expressed during the biofilm development. We suppose that some of these mechanisms of resistance may be responsible for resistance also against new azole, POS. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of these mechanisms during the development of C. albicans biofilms during the exposure to POS. “
“The molecular characterization of Malassezia spp. isolates from animals and humans has not been thoroughly studied. We have analysed the DNA profile by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)–PCR to compare the genetic diversity between isolates from the external ears of cattle, dogs and humans.

In this context, a pre-existing S. mansoni infection was shown to suppress Th1 response and to impair control of L. major (28) and L. donovani (29) infection in C57BL/6 mice. Also, co-infection with tapeworm Taenia crassiceps led to increased lesions sizes upon subsequent L. major and L. mexicana infection in BALB/c mice (30). In conclusion, the helmith/Leishmania co-infection studies demonstrating impaired control of Leishmania

(28–30) used helminths that induced long-lasting or even chronic infections while the ones including our own, reporting still intact host defence upon co-infection used either transient or semi-permissive helminth infection models (22,23,31). One study describing efficient control of L. major in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice carrying previous S. mansoni infections used selleck chemicals an extremely high L. major infection dose (4 × 107 promastigotes) that might have functioned as a very potent Th1 inducer, even in the presence of chronic helminth infection (31). The diversity of these results highlights the importance of all protagonists involved for the final outcome of co-infections that is, as pointed out above, helminth species, Leishmania infection doses and genetic background of the host mice (32). As this reflects the diversity of human population and their parasites, we argue that important knowledge learn more is extracted from all these

different co-infection models, despite heterogeneous results. Regarding the reciprocal impact of L. major infection on the nematode infection, we did observe a suppression of the local S. ratti-specific Th2 response. To our surprise, this suppression was detectable in the mesLN after 2 days of subsequent co-infection with L. major but not if L. major infection preceded S. ratti infection by 14 days. This clearly shows that the establishment of a protective local S. ratti-specific Th2 response was not impaired if an S. ratti co-infection took place in

mice with a fully established L. major-specific Th1 response. The S. ratti-specific Th2 response in the mesLN, however, is transient and starts to decline by day 8 p.i. (10). From enough this data we conclude that an L. major co-infection that was established at day 6 post-S. ratti infection accelerated the decline of the S. ratti-specific response, thus resulting in the observed reduction in Th2 cytokines in co-infected mice. Here, it is of special interest that a local infection such as L. major is usually restricted to the draining, i.e. the popLN displayed a systemic effect by changing cytokine responses in the mesLN. Interestingly, the reduced S. ratti-specific Th2 response observed upon L. major co-infection was still sufficient to allow efficient nematode expulsion, as we showed by unchanged worm burden. The artificial interference with Strongyloides-induced Th2 polarization, in contrast, has been shown to interfere with host defence.

fumigatus infection, which suggests that IFN-β is a possible adjuvant to elicit an appropriate Th reactivity to A. fumigatus. Dendritic cells were prepared as previously described.9 CD14+ monocytes were cultured with 25 ng/ml granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF; Schering-Plough, Levallois Perret, France) and 1000 U/ml IL-4 (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) for 5 days. On day 5, about 90% of the cells express CD1a+ and 95% express

CD14−. The DCs were starved from IL-4 and GM-CSF for 20 hr before infection or treatments. Monoclonal antibodies specific for CD1a, CD14, CD38, CD40, CD83, CD86, HLA-DR, CD3 and CD4 as well as immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), IgG2a Akt inhibitor and IgG2b (BD Bioscience PharMingen, San Diego, CA) were

used as direct conjugates to fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) or phycoerythrin. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Escherichia coli 0111:B4 (Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO) was used at a concentration of 100 ng/ml to stimulate DC maturation and IFN-β expression. The IFN-β (Avonex®; Biogen Inc., Cambridge, MA) was used at 200 pm. A wild-type clinical isolate of A. fumigatus (CBS 144 89) was grown on Sabouraud–chloramphenicol agar for 3 days, at 37°, as previously described.23 Preparations of A. fumigatus were analysed for LPS contamination by the Limulus lysate assay (Biowhittaker, Verviers, Belgium) and were found to contain less than AZD6738 mw 10 pg/ml LPS. In all experiments, DCs were infected with live A. fumigatus conidia at a 1 : 1 ratio. Amphotericin B (0·75 μg/ml; Sigma-Aldrich) was added to the cell

cultures to prevent fungal overgrowth 6 hr after infection when the internalization of A. fumigatus conidia was completed.9 For the adherence assay, A. fumigatus conidia were incubated with FITC at a final concentration of 3 mg/ml overnight at 4°, and then washed extensively with PBS. After a 6-hr incubation with FITC-labelled Liothyronine Sodium conidia (ratio 1 : 1), DCs were washed and the adherence was measured by flow cytometric analysis. The cells were incubated with purified monoclonal antibodies at 4° for 30 min. After washing, the cells were fixed with 2% paraformaldehyde before analysis on a FACScan using the cellquest software (BD Bioscience PharMingen). A total of 5000 cells were analysed per sample. RNA extraction, reverse transcription (RT) and real-time RT-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were performed as previously described.24 Sequences of the primer pairs used for glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GaPDH), IFN-β, IL-12p35, IL-23p19 and IL-27p28 quantification were previously described.24 Cytokine concentration in filtered supernatants was evaluated with the human inflammation cytometric bead array (CBA) [for IL-12p70, IL-10, tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-6: BD Bioscience PharMingen] and enzyme-linked immunsorbent assay (ELISA; for IFN-β: PBL Biomedical Laboratories, Piscataway, NJ; for IL-23: eBioscience, San Diego, CA).

The synergistic effect with nystatin was determined similarly. The effect of licorice compounds on biofilm formation was evaluated using a microplate assay and crystal violet staining. The effect of licorice compounds 3-deazaneplanocin A concentration on yeast-hyphal transition was determined by microscopic observation. The toxicity of licorice compounds towards oral epithelial cells was evaluated with an MTT assay. Glabridin and licochalcone A showed antifungal activity on C. albicans while glycyrrhizic acid had no effect. Complete growth inhibition occurred with sub-inhibitory concentrations

of nystatin with either glabridin or licochalcone A. Biofilm formation was inhibited by 35–60% in the presence of licochalcone A (0.2 μg ml−1). A strong inhibitory effect (>80%) on hyphal formation was observed with licochalcone A or glabridin (100 μg ml−1). Glabridin and licochalcone A at high concentrations showed toxicity towards oral epithelial cells. In summary, glabridin https://www.selleckchem.com/products/cetuximab.html and licochalcone

A are potent antifungal agents and may act in synergy with nystatin to inhibit growth of C. albicans. Licochalcone A has a significant effect on biofilm formation, while both licochalcone A and glabridin prevented yeast-hyphal transition in C. albicans. These results suggest a therapeutic potential of licochalcone A and glabridin for C. albicans oral infections. “
“Caspofungin is a member of the echinocandin class of antifungal compounds that inhibit 1,3-β-d-Glucan synthase. As patient exposure to caspofungin (CAS) broadens, the number of infecting strains with reduced susceptibility to this drug is expected to rise. In the present study, the in vitro effects of varying concentrations of CAS

against Candida albicans isolates presenting reduced susceptibility to CAS were studied in comparison with a reference strain. Two C. albicans isolates presenting high minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC = 8 μg ml−1) were selected: one isolate obtained in the laboratory under continuous antifungal selection pressure (CaIn-R) and one clinical isolate (CaClin-R) from a patient with a therapeutic failure. Results showed that after 24 h of CAS exposure, CaIn-R and CaClin-R presented a partial growth inhibition in comparison with the reference strain. Moreover, scanning electron ioxilan microscopy and transmission electron microscopy studies showed that the cell walls of CaIn-R and CaClin-R were less altered than that of the reference strain. These observations suggested that although CaIn-R and CaClin-R cells were misshapen after CAS exposure, cell lysis was limited after 24 h of treatment indicating higher survival ability for CaIn-R and CaClin-R in the presence of CAS. “
“This study describes the isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii from patients with chronic meningitis who were admitted to 16 Malaysian hospitals, from 2003 to 2004. Of the 96 cryptococcal cases reported over the 2-year period, 74 (77.1%) patients were male and 45 (46.

1/13). There was no specific difference in terms of frequency and type of seizures, AED regimen and clinical performance. Membrane traffic of SVs within nerve terminals involves major Raf activation trafficking proteins that are common constituents of all SVs and small protein families containing several isoforms that are differentially expressed in different parts of the nervous

system, such as SV2 proteins. In this study, we report for the first time the distribution of the three SV2 isoforms, SV2A, SV2B and SV2C, in the hippocampus of controls and TLE patients. Only a few studies have analysed SV2A expression in the human hippocampus [9, 19], cerebral cortex [9, 39] and cerebellum [9]. In this study, TLE patients with HS showed reduced SV2A expression in hippocampal areas of neuronal/synaptic loss but increased expression in the IML when mossy fibre sprouting occurs. This compares well with previous observations by van Vliet et al. [19]. Similar observations have been

made in rat models of temporal epilepsy and it has been suggested that SV2A loss could contribute to epileptogenesis and pharmacoresistance [10, 15-18]. In contrast, no significant SV2A expression change HM781-36B manufacturer was found within or around epileptogenic brain tumours [35], foci of cortical dysplasia and cortical tubers [39]. A recent prospective study indicates, however, that SV2A expression in tumour and peritumoural tissue correlates with clinical response to LEV and predicts LEV efficacy in these patients [40]. In the adult rodent brain, SV2B has a wide distribution, but with Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase some areas of restriction/exclusion, being barely detectable in the striatum and undetectable in the globus pallidus, cerebellar Purkinje cells, reticular nucleus of the thalamus, pars reticularis of the substantia nigra, and GCL in the hippocampus [3, 7]. This study shows that in human controls and TLE patients, SV2B distribution parallels synaptophysin and SV2A in the hippocampus, suggesting that most synapses contain both isoforms. The role of SV2B in epilepsy is unclear, as knockout SV2B−/− mice do not show an epileptic phenotype

and SV2B absence does not aggravate the phenotype of the SV2A deletion [2]. Like other SV2s, SV2B is not neurotransmitter specific but in one recent study, it was found to be associated preferentially with VGLUT-1 synaptic vesicles in the rat [7], a finding that contrasts with SV2B detection by in situ hybridization in both glutamatergic and GABAergic neurones [3] and also with our own findings. The preferential involvement of SV2A or SV2B in Ca2+-dependent vesicle exocytosis may be cell population specific as previous work has shown their differential distribution in neuronal and endocrine cells [3, 4, 21, 22, 41]. It may also reflect neurone maturation, as SV2B is not detected in the GCL in adult rats and mice although it is transiently expressed during development [3].

3), whereas female-tissues lack UTY-mRNA. Although non-homologous amino-acids may play a role in T cell-recognition by the TCR (T cell-receptor)-peptide (possibly resulting in more potent or weaker reactions

than the natural dog peptide) we could work out an immunogenicity-hierarchy of the human-peptides in the dog model. The most immunogenic human-UTY-derived peptide in the canine-system was W248 with 85 ± 21 specific-spots/100,000 T cells (BM; E:T = 80:1) in 3 dogs (Fig. 3). K1234 could provoke a higher specific T cell amount in one dog compared to W248 (338/100,000 T cells; 80:1; BM), click here but in total it was less immunogenic regarding reactive-dogs (n = 2) and counted spots (202 ± 192/100,000 T cells; E:T = 80:1; BM). T368 was the less immunogenic hUTY-peptide with 38/100,000 T cells (E:T = 80:1; BM; n = 1). Altogether, the most immunogenic human-UTY-derived peptide was W248 (3/3 = 100%), followed by K1234 (2/3 = 67%) and T368 (1 dog = 33%). As a proof-of-principle we wanted to confirm our in vitro data in an in vivo experiment.

UTY-specific CTLs were obtained by immunizing a female dog (dog #6) twice (day 0 and 14) with DLA-identical-male PBMCs (dog #7). Thirty-five days after the second injection peripheral-blood T cells were harvested and studied for their UTY-specific reactivity in IFN-γ-ELISPOT assays DNA Damage inhibitor (E:T = 20:1, Fig. 5). Monocytes, PBMCs and BM (Fig. 5A–C) from the DLA-identical male-dog served as target cells verifying the Idoxuridine endogenous cUTY-presentation on male cell-types, cells from a DLA-identical female-dog (dog #4) and autologous female-cells (#6) served as controls. Additionally, cAPCs and hT2-cells (Fig. 5D) were pulsed with hUTY-derived peptides. Female T cells’ MHC-I-restriction was confirmed with Anti-MHC-I-mAb. Compositions of the different cell-populations (T cell-subtypes CD4 and CD8, monocytes, B cells and NK cells) of the male-donor and the female-recipient were separately controlled before (day 0), after 14 and 35 days of immunization via flow-cytometry (data not shown). Donor-cell-compositions

did not show significant variations during in vivo culture, but a 2-fold-increase in percentage of all cell-populations of recipient cells was observed. In vivo-generated canine-female T cells showed low reactivity (IFN-γ-ELISPOT assay) against female-control-cells and autologous-cells (Monocytes, PBMCs and BM: range: 3–5/100,000 T cells, median: 4), whereas T cells secreted IFN-γ in the presence of the male-cell-types (15–45/100,000 T cells, median: 29; P < 0.044 to P < 0.001, Mann–Whitney-U-test) being UTY-specific (: 2–25/100,000 T cells, median: 7/100,000; P < 0.048 to P < 0.003, Wilcoxon-test; Fig. 5). When pulsing male-target cells (Monocytes, PBMCs and BM) with hUTY-peptides, female-T cells specifically reacted against them, shown by MHC-I-blocking-experiments (12–35/100,000 T cells, median: 20; : 3–15/100,000, median: 7; P < 0.

5–300 ng/mL), thus being most reliably measurable. Both pro-inflammatory (TNF, IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8, GM-CSF) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (TARC,

M-CSF) were highest in vesicular-dominated fractions. Not surprising, leucocyte (PMN) counts correlated with the relative levels of TNF, IL-6 and CXCL8 (ex-IL-8) but not with those of TGFβ1-3. Consequently, GSI-IX ic50 anti-inflammatory and tolerance-related cytokines (IL-10, LIF, M-CSF), but not of TGFβ1-3, dominated in samples with few leucocytes, being their relative concentration lowest in leucocytic samples (>1 million/mL). These preliminary results suggest differences in cytokine/chemokine levels among fractions of the human ejaculate, which might be related to specific signalling properties in vivo. The suggested functions of SP proteins include their involvement in several essential steps preceding fertilization, such as regulating capacitation, establishment of the oviductal sperm reservoir, modulation of the uterine immune response and sperm transport in the female genital tract, as well as in gamete interaction and fusion.42 Interestingly, individual proteins from the same family appear to function in a species-specific JNK inhibitor manner. Differences in their structure, relative abundance and patterns of expression appear to determine species-specific effects of homologous

proteins.31 SP proteins differ somewhat in functionality related to their source, more clearly seen when fractionated ejaculates

are examined. Following mating or intercourse, mammalian spermatozoa are transported from the site of deposition towards the oviduct within minutes, owing to the concerted motility of the female tract muscle.72 These spermatozoa bathe, in individuals with fractionated ejaculation, in different fluids, such as the epididymal cauda fluid and the accessory gland secretion that is verted at the time the corresponding spurt of ejaculation is issued. As mentioned Y-27632 molecular weight before, the secretion of the first spurts of the sperm-rich fraction is acidic, and sperm proteins demonstrated to link themselves to acidic polysaccharides such as those in the secretion of the cervix, uterus and even oviduct.8 On the other hand, binding of some SP proteins, at least in the bull and stallion, inhibits such interaction of sperm proteins with acidic polysaccharides.73 SP proteins affect differentially sperm survival post-ejaculation, and those present in the last ejaculate fractions (seminal vesicle origin) have a more pronounced negative effect, perhaps in relation to the extensive presence of several proteins. For instance, cleavage products of the human ejaculate coagulum (basically vesicular secretion) inhibit sperm motility, which indicates those spermatozoa might be in disadvantage in vivo. The primary secretion in the first spurts, however, where spermatozoa are present, promotes longer sperm survival in humans16 and boars.

92 Moreover, polymorphisms in not only STAT3, but also in IL23R

and JAK2 loci, correlate with Crohn’s disease.93–95 Therefore, appropriate activation of the STAT proteins is clearly required for the development of a healthy immune response. Interestingly, several studies show abnormal expression of SOCS proteins in autoimmune diseases. In particular, SOCS1 mRNA is elevated in patients who present with systemic lupus erythematosus96 and rheumatoid arthritis,97 and single nucleotide polymorphisms in SOCS1 are associated with multiple sclerosis98 and coeliac disease.99 All of these autoimmune pathologies are characterized by increased IL-17 secretion, which would be consistent with the fact that SOCS1 promotes the development of Th17 cells. Compellingly, Selleckchem Ibrutinib the correlation between SOCS3 expression and the severity of atopy is also apparent in patients. Markedly Vemurafenib datasheet elevated SOCS3 expression is observed in skin samples from patients suffering from severe atopic dermatitis (AD) when compared with individuals with normal skin or with the Th1-mediated condition psoriasis.100 Furthermore, specific haplotypes of the SOCS3 gene have been linked with AD in two independent Swedish childhood cohorts

and SOCS3 mRNA is more highly expressed in AD skin.101 The detection of elevated SOCS3 expression in peripheral T cells and in AD skin may be of particular relevance because the SOCS3 gene is located on chromosome 17q25, one of the established AD genetic loci.102 Similarly, SOCS3 expression in T cells positively correlates with the severity of asthma and AD,33 whereas elevated SOCS3 mRNA levels and polymorphisms within FER the SOCS3 locus are found in patients with AD.101 Asthmatics also present with polymorphisms within the SOCS1 promoter, consistent with the fact that SOCS3 and SOCS1 regulate Th2 differentiation.103

The correlation between elevated SOCS1 expression and asthma severity in patients suggests that SOCS1 may inhibit IFN-γ-dependent Th1 differentiation, thereby enhancing Th2-mediated pathology.104 Of note, disruption of SOCS2 expression increases murine susceptibility to atopy but whether this is of relevance in patients has yet to be determined.59 Taken together, these different studies confirm the importance of SOCS proteins in the regulation of human pathogenic immune responses. Clearly, both STATs and SOCS are key regulators of lineage commitment and collaborate to tightly regulate CD4+ T-cell polarization. As with STATs, SOCS often exert opposing effects and may cross-regulate one another,59,61,105,106 and although murine null models exemplify this cross-compensation, this may well reflect reality because SOCS proteins are differentially expressed in individual CD4+ lineages.

Goetz, University of Tuebingen, Germany). S. pneumoniae, strain TIGR4 Δcps is the non-encapsulated variant of TIGR4 (provided by S. Hammerschmidt, University of Greifswald, Germany). Bacteria were cultured on Columbia sheep red blood agar plates (bioMérieux, Nuertingen, selleck products Germany) and incubated at 37°C overnight. Monocytes were stimulated with bacteria at a ratio of 1:5 cells/bacteria. IRAK4, MyD88, and the respective control Stealth RNAiTM and LipofectamineTM RNAiMAX reagent were obtained from Invitrogen (Karlsruhe, Germany). siRNA-mediated gene knockdown experiments were performed in a 96-well format,

adapted from the Invitrogen reverse transfection protocol. Real-time RT-PCR was conducted using the High Pure RNA Isolation Kit (Roche, Mannheim, Germany), Superscript III First strand cDNA synthesis BAY 57-1293 cell line kit (Invitrogen, Karlsruhe, Germany), Absolute QPCR SYBR GREEN Low ROX Mix (ABgene House, Epsom, UK), and a 7900 HT Fast Real Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems, Darmstadt, Germany) following the manufacturers´ instructions. Relative expression was calculated by normalization to β-actin mRNA expression levels as rE =

1/(2Ct(target) − Ct(beta-actin)). Primers were obtained from MWG Biotech (Ebersberg, Germany): Human β-actin (F 5′-AGAGCTACGAGCTGCCTGAC-3′; R 5′-AGCACTGTGTTGGCGTACAG-3′; 184 bp); irak4 (F 5′-GCCACCT-GACTCCTCAAGTC-3′; R 5′-CAAATCCTCCCTCTCCCATT-3′; 115 bp); myd88 (F 5′-GACTGCTCGAGCTGCTTACC-3′; R 5′-GCGGTCAGACACACACAACT-3′; 193 bp); il-10 (F 5′-ACGGCGCTGTCATCGATT-3′; R 5′-GGCATTCTTCACCTGCTCCA-3′; 167 bp); socs3 (F 5′-GCCACTCCCTGGGAGTCC-3′; R 5′-ATAGGAGTCCAGGTGGCCGT-3′; 151 bp); socs1 (F 5′-CCTGGTGCGCGACAGC-3′; R 5′-CAGCAGCTCGAAGAGGCAGT-3′; 138 bp); tnfr2 (F 5′-TGAAAAAGAAGCCCTTGTGC-3′; R 5′-CTGTGGCTGGTTCCGAGT-3′; 188 bp); foxo3 (F 5′-GGGGAACTTCACTGGTGCTA-3′; R 5′-GAGAGCAGATTTGGCAAAGG-3′; 143 bp), foxo1 (F 5′-AGGCTGAGGGTTAGTGAGCA-3′; R 5′-GCCAAGTCTGACGAAAGGAA-3′; 170 bp). Supernatants from monocytes were collected after

24 h. Cytokine levels (TNF, IL-10, IL-12p40, IL-6, and IL-1β) were quantified using the BDOptEIATM kits Low-density-lipoprotein receptor kinase (BD Biosciences, Heidelberg, Germany). For the NF-κB ELISA, nuclear extracts were prepared 30 min after LPS stimulation with a nuclear extract kit (Active Motif, La Hulpe, Belgium). Transcription factor activity was quantified with the TransAM NF-κB Transcription Factor Assay Kit (Active Motif). For protein lysates cells were harvested by centrifugation and washed in PBS. The pellet was resuspended in RIPA lysis buffer containing aprotinin, leupeptin, PMSF, NaF, and Na3VO4 (all from Sigma). After incubation on ice for 30 min lysates were centrifuged at 13 000 rpm for 15 min at 4°C, supernatants collected and stored at ‒20°C. 12% SDS-PAGE was performed with equal amounts of whole cell lysates of 1–2×106 monocytes and protein transfer to nitrocellulose membrane (Whatman, Dassel, Germany) by semi-dry blotting.