Mononuclear cells from the peripheral blood and spleens of humanized mice and PBMCs from patients were reacted with fluorescent antibodies (BD Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA) against CD4 (clone RPA-T4), CD8 (clone SK1), CD19 (clone HIB19), CD25 (clone M-A251), CD14 (clone MφP9), IL-17 (clone SCPL1362), phosphorylated STAT3 (Tyr705, pSTAT3, clone 4/P-STAT3), and collagen type I (COL1A1, R&D Systems, Minneapolis, Minn). Prior to intracellular staining, the cells were restimulated for 4 h with phorbol myristate acetate (25 ng/mL, Sigma-Aldrich) and ionomycin (250 ng/mL, Sigma-Aldrich) in the presence of GolgiSTOP (BD Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA). Intracellular staining was performed using a kit (eBioscience, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) following the manufacturer’s protocol. Flow cytometry was performed using a FACSCalibur instrument (BD Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA). Mouse antibodies targeting human endothelin receptor A (ETAR) were measured using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit (MyBioSource Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). Detailed measuring protocols followed the ref. 19 (link).
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