For nuclear transcription factor staining, cells were labeled with surface markers, then fixed and permeabilized with the Foxp3-Staining-Buffer-Set (eBioscience), according to the manufacturer's instruction. Cells were then stained with PE-anti-Bcl6 (K112-91, BD Biosciences) and PE-anti-Foxp3 (FJK-16s, eBiosciences).
For phospho-flow staining, after treatment, cells were fixed and permeabilized with the BD Phosflow™ Fix Buffer and Perm Buffer, according to the manufacturer's instruction. Surface markers staining were followed by intracellular staining with Alexa-647-rabbit-anti-phospho-Akt-Ser473 (Cell signaling) or Pacific-blue-mouse-anti-Stat3-p-Y705 (4/p-Stat3, BD Bioscience). Samples were acquired with an LSRII FACS analyzer (BD Biosciences), and data was analyzed with FlowJo software (Tree Star, Inc. Ashland, OR, USA).