Fig. 1
Characterization of lymphomas occurring in Faslpr/lpr and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr mice. A. Graph showing the incidence of splenic lymphoma in Faslpr/lpr (n = 46) and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr (n = 48) mice at about 5–6 months of age (69% and 33% and respectively) (****, p < 0.0001; Chi-square two-tailed test). B. Representative H&E staining of Faslpr/lpr and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr tumours. Scale bar: 50 μm. C. An example of flow cytometry analysis showing the expression of surface IgM and B220 on CD19 + B cells from naïve and autoimmune mice. D. IF for BCL6 (upper panel) and Ki67 (lower panel) on splenic lymphomas from Faslpr/lpr and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr mice. PAX5 is used as pan B cell marker. Scale bar: 100 μm. E. Flow cytometry quantification of CD19 + Ki67 + cells in the spleen from Faslpr/lpr (n = 7) and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr animals (n = 7) (Student t test; *, p: 0.0153). The graph shows a pool of two independent experiments. F. Western blot illustrating the expression of BCL2, c-MYC and IRF4, in splenic CD19 + B cells from Faslpr/lpr (n = 3) and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr (n = 3) mice. CD19 + cells from a BALB/c and a OPN-/- mouse were used as controls. G. Quantification of western blot, relative to β-ACTIN as housekeeping gene, of BCL2 (Student t test; **, p: 0.0076), c-MYC (Student t test; ns, p: 0.4781) and IRF4 (Student t test; *, p: 0.0260). Statistics was applied to values related to Faslpr/lpr and OPN-/-Faslpr/lpr B cells