Fig. 7

ODN 2006 suppresses uptake of Der p 1, but not Api in healthy and allergic subjects. PBMC from fresh blood samples were enriched for panDC and cultured overnight in AIMV medium containing 20 ng/ml IL-3 in the presence or absence of CpG ODN 2006 (2,5 µg/ml), IL-4 (500 U/ml) or IL-13 (100 U/ml) or allergen as indicated. Prior to incubation allergens were labeled using an Alexa Fluor 555 staining kit as described. Allergen concentrations were 20 µg/ml for Der p 1 and 10 µg/ml for bee venom. After incubation, allergen uptake was analyzed using flow cytometry. Frequencies of pDCs in the DC-enriched samples reached 24–50% as defined by Lin-1⁻/CD123⁺⁺ staining. A Results from healthy controls without house dust mite (HDM) allergy (white boxes, n = 6) and individuals allergic to HDM (grey boxes, n = 5) are shown. B Data from healthy controls without bee allergy (white boxes, n = 8) and individuals allergic to bee venom (grey boxes, n = 12) are shown. Box plots illustrate percentages of allergen-positive pDC, central horizontal lines indicate medians, box borders represent IQR, whiskers indicate minima and maxima. Significance levels were **p < 0.005 and *p < 0.05, assessed by Friedman test, followed by Dunn’s multiple comparisons test