To test the direct effects of α-GalCer on liver damage, mice were injected with α-GalCer only (group name: α-GC) or α-GalCer and then CFA/IFA without 2-OA-BSA (group name: α-GC/CFA) throughout the protocol. Sera were obtained on all mice at 4 and 12 weeks postimmunization and titers of immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG anti-PDC-E2 autoantibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All mice were sacrificed at either 4 or 12 weeks postimmunization and thence examined for liver histopathology, including mononuclear cell phenotypes. Furthermore, to confirm XAV-939 clinical trial the biologic effects of α-GalCer administration, a nested group of mice were assayed 24 hours after

the α-GalCer injection for cytokine production and liver DC phenotypes. Sera from the same mice were also collected at times 0, 2, 6,

10, 24, and 48 hours following the α-GalCer injection and analyzed for serum levels of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and IL-4 by ELISA. All experiments were performed following approval of the Animal Welfare Committees of National Taiwan University and the University of California at Davis. The methodology for all of the surrogate readouts are described below. Serum titers of IgM and IgG anti-PDC-E2 autoantibodies were measured by ELISA using our well-standardized recombinant autoantigens, including the use of positive and negative controls. Briefly, purified recombinant PDC-E2 at 1 μg/mL in carbonate buffer (pH 9.6) was coated onto ELISA plates at 4°C overnight. After blocking with 1% casein (Sigma-Aldrich) for 1 hour, diluted sera were added for see more 2 hours at room temperature. The ELISA plates were washed with PBS-tween 20 followed by the addition of horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated goat antimouse IgG (1:10,000, Zymed Laboratories, Carlsbad, CA) and IgM (1:10,000, Invitrogen,

Camarillo, CA). The plates were incubated for another hour and immunoreactivity was detected by measuring the optical density (O.D.) at 450 nm after exposure for 20 minutes to tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) substrate (R&D systems, Minneapolis, MN). Livers were perfused with PBS containing 0.2% BSA (PBS/0.2% BSA) (Sigma-Aldrich), passed through a 100-μm nylon mesh, and resuspended in PBS/0.2% BSA. The parenchymal selleck chemicals cells were removed as pellets after centrifugation at 100g for 1 minute and the nonparenchymal cells were washed in PBS/0.2% BSA three times (440 g, 5 minutes) to remove hepatocytes. Mononuclear cells were then isolated using Histopaque-1077 (Sigma-Aldrich). After centrifugation, collected cells were washed with PBS/0.2% BSA and viability of cells was confirmed by trypan blue dye exclusion. Cell numbers were determined by a hemacytometer (Hausser Scientific, Horsham, PA). Cell population and cytokine secretion of iNKT cells were measured by flow cytometry.