SFN inhibits LPS induced moDC maturation and enhances the phagocytic activity.

moDCs at day 7 in culture were used for cell phagocytosis and cell differentiation status analysis. moDCs were pre-incubated for 1 h with or without SFN (10 μM) before stimulation for 24 h LPS (1.0 μg/ml) or to the indicated concentrations. CD40, CD80, and CD86 cellular surface markers expression were analyzed by flow cytometry (A). The flow cytometry results shown were from one experiment of two independent experiments. CD40, CD80 and CD86 mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) determined by flow cytometry (B). The flow cytometry results were combined from two independent experiments and each experiment was performed from triplications. Data are mean ± standard deviations (SD) (the letters a and b P<0.01). The phagocytic activity of moDCs was examined after stimulating with different concentration of LPS (0,5 μg/ml, 1,0 μg/ml, and 2,0 μg/ml) with or without 24 h pre-treatment with SFN (C). The mRNA expression of DCs surface markers CD40, CD80 and CD86 were quantified using qRT-PCR (D). The mRNA expression and phagocytosis results were combined from three independent experiments and each experiment was performed in four replications. The data represented as the mean ± standard deviations (SD) (* P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001).