Overexpression of CD86 provides a survival advantage against different cell death signals. (A) Alignment of CD86 cytoplasmic domains using Clustal. *Denotes identity; : and . denote similarity. (B) Diagrams showing structure of the 2 different CD86 constructs. CD86FLm represents full-length CD86, whereas CD86TLm represents the tail-less version, wherein the cytosolic domain was shortened to 7 amino acids to abrogate signaling capacity. The histograms at the right show surface levels of stable transfection of CD86 constructs compared with pCDNA3.1 vector control and parental cells. (C) Representative histograms showing surface expression of indicated molecules in RPMI8226 CD86FLm- and CD86TLm-expressing cells. (D) Concentration curves for CD86 transfectants and vector controls with indicated pharmacologic agents. Cells were treated for 24 hours (except in the case of dexamethasone [48 hours]), and cell death was measured via annexin V–propidium iodide staining. Data shown as percentage of untreated control for each cell line. Data shown are mean ± SEM of at least 3 independent experiments. TM, transmembrane.