SP37A3 cells retain functional plasticity during maturation. SP37A3 cells were differentiated as described (Figures 1,3), with DEX added at 2 different concentrations (10−6 M, 10−5 M) for the last 24 or 48 hours of the 3-day activation period with TNF-α and IL-1β, or for the entire 72 hours. Conditioned SP37A3 cells were subjected to allogeneic MLR (Figure 3) (A) and quantitative real-time PCR (Figure 6B-C) (B). (A) Proliferation of BALB/c T cells induced by mature SP37A3 cells was set to 1 (dashed line). Data represent mean ± SEM of 4 experiments performed in triplicate. Asterisks indicate statistically significant (*P < .05; **P < .001; ***P < .001) differences compared with proliferation induced by mature SP37A3 cells or between the indicated groups. (B) Data indicate fold changes in mRNA expression by mature and alternatively activated SP37A3 cells, versus immature cells (dashed line). Data represent mean ± SEM of 3 experiments performed in duplicate. *Statistically significant differences in mRNA expression by mature or alternatively activated versus immature SP37A3 cells; #statistically significant differences in mRNA expression by DEX-cotreated versus mature SP37A3 cells; +statistically significant differences in mRNA expression by SP37A3 cells cotreated with the same dose of DEX for 72 versus 24 hours (*P < .05; #P < .05; +P < .05; **P < .01; ##P < .01; ++P < .01; ***P < .001).
