For ex vivo analysis, cells were stimulated with 25 ng/mL PMA (Sigma-Aldrich) and 1 g/mL ionomycin (Sigma-Aldrich) in the presence of 0.66 μL/mL Golgistop (BD PharMingen) for 6 h at 37 °C, 5 % CO2. Intracellular staining of IFN-γ and IL-4 was performed using Transcription Factor Staining Buffer Set (eBioscience). Data was collected by FACS Calibur flow cytometer (BD Biosciences) and analyzed by FlowJo software (TreeStar, Ashland, OR).
For cell quantization, blood sample (100 μL) was stained with the specific antibodies: anti-CD19-FITC, anti-CD3-APC, anti-CD4-FITC, anti-CD8-FITC, anti-CD11c-APC, anti-F4⁄80-FITC, and anti-CD11b-APC. Erythrocytes were then lysed with Cal-lyse Lysing Solution (Invitrogen). After thoroughly mixing with 100 μL of Caltag Counting Beads (Invitrogen), 10,000 beads were acquired in the FACS Calibur flow cytometer for each sample.