Cell cultures were incubated

at 37° in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2 for 4 hr and then developed by adding acid isopropanol (0·1 ml). Absorbance was measured at 595 nm using the GENios ELISA plate reader running the Magellan reader control and data reduction software (Tecan Austria GmbH, Salzburg, Austria). The abundance and distribution of IgH, Igκ, and TCR-β rearrangements in genomic DNA isolated from splenocytes (IgH and Igκ) or thymocytes (TCR) were analysed by selleck kinase inhibitor semi-quantitative PCR using sense primers specific for a given VH,19 Vκ,20 and TCR-β21 family member and anti-sense primers located 3′ of a given joining segment: JH4,19 Jκ5,22 and Jβ1.6 and Jβ2.7,21 respectively. Briefly, samples for PCR (100 μl) contained 200, 50, 12·5 and 3·125 ng of genomic

DNA (fourfold dilutions), 20 pmol of each primer, 0·2 mm dNTPs, 20 mm Tris–HCl (pH 8·4), 50 mm KCl, 1·5 mm MgCl2, and 2 units Taq polymerase. Samples were subjected to 30 cycles of amplification (94° for 1 min, 60° for 1 min, and 72° for 1·75 min) followed by a final extension (72° for 10 min). A fragment from the CD14 locus was amplified as a DNA loading control.23 The PCR products were fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis, transferred AZD2014 nmr to ZetaProbe membrane, and probed with 32P-labelled nested oligonucleotides to JH4 (5′-GCAGACTAATCTTGGATATTTGCCCTGAGGGAGCCGGCTGAGAGAAGTTG-3′), Jκ5 (5′-GCTCACGTTCGGTGCTGGGACCAAGCTGGAGCTGAAACGTAAGTAC-3′), Leukocyte receptor tyrosine kinase Jβ1.6 (5′-TTCCTATAATTCGCCCCTCTACTTTGCGGCAGGCACC-3′) and Jβ2.7.21 IgH CDR3 spectrotyping was performed on genomic DNA isolated from spleens of transgenic mice and their non-transgenic littermates using a sense primer specific for a given VH gene family (VHJ558, VH7813, or VHQ52) and a μ enhancer-specific antisense primer, as described elsewhere.24 Briefly, samples for PCR (100 μl) contained 1 μg genomic DNA, 25 pmol of each primer, 0·2 mm dNTPs, 20 mm Tris–HCl (pH 8·4), 50 mm KCl, 1·5 mm

MgCl2, and 2·5 units Taq polymerase. Samples were subjected to an initial denaturation (94° for 2 min), 40 cycles of amplification (94° for 30 seconds, 65° for 25 seconds and 72° for 25 seconds), followed by a final extension (72° for 4 min). Amplification products were subjected to 10 additional cycles of runoff elongation using a radiolabelled nested antisense primer specific for JH4.24 Runoff reaction products were separated on a sequencing gel, subjected to storage phosphor autoradiography using Storm 860 gel and blot imaging system, and line graphs were generated and analysed using the ImageQuaNT software. Total mRNA was isolated from FACS-purified splenic B220lo CD19+ and B220hi CD19+ B cells obtained from WT and dnRAG1 B cells using the Novagen Straight A’s mRNA Isolation System (Darmstadt, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.