The detection limits for IFN-γ, IL-10 and IL-13 were 5, 8 and 6 pg/ml, respectively. Identification of proliferating and cytokines secreting cells.  PBMC were first depleted of CD4+ T cells and then of CD8+ T cells using magnetic beads coated with CD4- and CD8-specific monoclonal antibodies (Invitrogen Dynal AS, Oslo, Norway), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Positively isolated CD4+ and CD8+ cells were detached from beads using Detach-A-Beads

(Invitrogen Dynal AS), and 100,000 pure CD4+ or CD8+ Roscovitine cells were then cultured with the antigen-presenting cells (CD4- and CD8-depleted PBMC) exactly as described for PBMC. Statistical methods.  HBoV- and B19-specific responses were analysed with Wilcoxon signed rank test. The correlations of cytokine with proliferation responses were studied

with Spearman’s correlation. P-values ≤0.05 were considered significant. Human bocavirus–specific proliferation and selleck chemicals llc cytokine responses were readily detectable among the 36 HBoV-seropositive subjects (Fig. 1) using highly purified HBoV-VLP [5]. When HBoV-specific responses were compared with the same subject’s tetanus toxoid (TT) specific ones, stronger proliferation and IL-13 responses were found with TT, whereas IFN-γ and IL-10 responses were statistically similar with these two antigens. B19-specific proliferation responses were significantly stronger than the corresponding HBoV-specific ones (P = 0.028), whereas the cytokine responses were found to be statistically similar: P-values 0.657 with IL-10, 0.910 with IL-13 and 0.286 with IFN-γ (Table 1). Next, we investigated how HBoV- and B19-specific cytokine and proliferation responses correlate among the 20 B19-seropositive subjects (Fig. 2). As shown in Fig. 2,

all HBoV-specific cytokine response pairs showed significant positive correlations (P ≤ 0.002). In particular, HBoV-specific IL-13 responses showed strong correlation with the other HBoV-specific cytokines: P = 0.001 with IL-10 and <0.0001 with IFN-γ. Similar interrelation was found when the correlations of HBoV-specific proliferation and cytokine responses were studied: P = 0.003 (r = 0.627) with IFN-γ, P = 0.033 (r = 0.478) with IL-10 and P ≤ 0.0001 (r = 0.747) with IL-13. Interestingly, although the response patterns appeared to be very similar with B19 and HBoV antigens (Fig. 2), no significant Decitabine purchase correlations could be found between any B19-specific proliferation and cytokine response pairs (P ≥ 0.059). To identify the cell populations accounting for the proliferation responses and secreting the cytokines, we incubated positively selected CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with the antigens. T-cell responses were found almost exclusively among with CD4+ T cells, not with CD8+ cells (Fig. 3). To date, most of the studies on HBoV have been based on PCR or ELISA, while little information on T-cell responses is available [24]. HBoV-VLP are antigens of choice in serodiagnostic assays [5, 20–22] and in in vitro studies of Th-cell immunity [24].