The interface between plasma and histopaque, corresponding to the PBMC fraction, was collected

and washed four times with ice-cold PBS. The cells were suspended in plain RPMI-1640 media and assessed for viability using trypan blue exclusion. They were then plated at 1·5 × 105/well in 96-well flat-bottomed tissue culture plates (Costar, Cambridge, MA, USA) and incubated at 37°C in a 5% CO2 atmosphere for 1 h to allow the macrophages to adhere. The plate was then washed three times with sterile PBS to remove non-adherent cells. All the reagents used were found to contain less than 0·01 EU/ml of endotoxin with the Limulus amoebocyte lysate (BioWhittaker Inc., Walkersville, MD, USA). To test the ability of erythrocytes FDA approved Drug Library to inhibit the IC-mediated stimulation of macrophages, ICs buy AZD1208 were added to 108 erythrocytes in 10% AB+ serum

to a final concentration of 35 µg/ml in 150 µl and incubated at 37°C for 30 min. A separate set of negative control cells had either RPMI-1640 medium only or were incubated with 35 µg/ml purified rabbit IgG. The erythrocytes were then added to duplicate wells of a 96-well culture plate containing attached macrophages and 10 µg/ml of polymyxin B sulphate (Sigma-Aldrich). Positive control wells contained ICs without erythrocytes or LPS (Sigma-Aldrich) at a concentration of 7 µg/ml. To test the ability of IC-loaded red cells to stimulate macrophages, red cells were incubated with ICs as above, but following incubation they were washed three times with plain RPMI-1640

and added to duplicate wells containing macrophages as above. Negative control wells contained erythrocytes that were not loaded with ICs. To block IC-mediated stimulation of macrophages, some macrophage wells were pretreated for 30 min at 37°C with 20 µg/ml of endotoxin-free purified rabbit IgG Fc fragments (Jackson Immunoresearch, West Grove, PA, USA). The plates were incubated for 8 h at 37°C in a 5% CO2 atmosphere. At the end of the incubation, the supernatants were harvested and stored at −70°C. All incubations were performed Teicoplanin at room temperature and all washes were performed at least three times. Immulon HB 96-well plates (Thermo Labsystems, Helsinki, Finland) were coated overnight with 6 µg/ml anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibody (Thermo Fisher Scientific). The wells were then blocked with 200 µl of blocking buffer (PBS, 1% Tween 20, 0·5% boiled casein) for 2 h and washed in wash buffer (PBS–0·05% Tween). One hundred µl of macrophage culture supernatant, diluted 1:1 in dilution buffer (0·025% Tween–0·5% boiled casein), was added to each well followed by a 2-h incubation. A standard curve was prepared by making serial dilutions of a known sample of human recombinant TNF-α (Thermo Fisher Scientific). The plates were washed again and incubated for 1 h with a 1:400 dilution of biotinylated rabbit anti-TNF-α (Thermo Fisher Scientific).