Effects of Fas siRNA on the functions of DCs. (A) Fas expression on Fas siRNA-transfected BMDCs from control mice was analyzed after the stimulation of RANKL. GAPDH siRNA or irrelevant oligonucleotides was used as control. Data are means ± SD of triplicate samples and are representative of 3 independent experiments. (B) Inhibitory effect of Fas siRNA on Fas and RANKL-induced apoptosis of BMDCs from control mice was observed. Apoptotic cells were detected by flow cytometric analysis. Data are means ± SD and representative of 3 independent experiments. (C) Fas siRNA-transfected BMDCs were stimulated with RANKL from 0 to 96 hours. Caspase-3 expression was analyzed by immunoblot. GAPDH was used as a control for loading. Data are representative of 3 independent experiments. (D) MHC class II expression on the Fas siRNA-transfected BMDCs stimulated with RANKL was detected by flow cytometric analysis. Numbers above horizontal lines indicate percentage of MHC class II⁺ cells. Data are representative of 3 independent experiments. (E) Fas siRNA-transfected BMDCs from MRL^+/+ and MRL/lpr mice were stimulated with RANKL, and the secretion of IL-12 from the DCs was detected by ELISA. Data are means ± SD of triplicate samples and are representative of 3 independent experiments. (F) Nuclear translocation of NF-κB subunits (p65 and p50) was detected using the nuclear extracts of Fas siRNA-transfected BMDCs from control mice by Western blot analysis. Histone was used as a control for loading. Data are representative of 3 independent experiments.