Intracellular staining for FOXP3 was performed in accordance with the manufacturer's protocol (eBioscience). Expression levels of and IL-17 was assessed after activation of cells with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA, 5ng/ml, Sigma Aldrich, St Luis, MO, USA), Ionomycin (1μg/ml, Sigma Aldrich, St Luis, MO, USA) and Monensin (2μM, eBioscience, San Diego, CA, USA) for 4 hours. Subsequently, the intracellular staining for IL-17 was performed according to the manufacturer's protocol.
In the BRC CRF, flow cytometry, using CD4-PerCP/Cy™5.5, CD-25PE, CD8-APC was carried out on the BD FACSCanto™ cell analyzer (BD Bioscience). Intracellular staining for FOXP3-FITC was performed, as above, in accordance with manufacturer's protocol (eBioscience). Appropriate isotype controls and Fluorescence minus one controls were used to assign gates and analysis carried out, using the FlowJo software.