Mechanisms for the differentiation of LRDCs from hematopoietic progenitors driven by liver stroma. (A) Dynamic observation of Lin⁻CD117⁺ progenitor proliferation under liver stroma. (B,C) Differentiation of progenitors to LRDCs in the presence of the precoated LSC-derived membrane proteins (LSC-Mp-LRDC) or 50% supernatant of LSCs that were harvested after culture for 24 hours (50%-LSC-SN-LRDC). In some groups, a variety of neutralizing antibodies were added into the culture system. After 7 days, the differentiated cells under different conditions were harvested and positively selected by using CD11c magnetic microbeads, cell numbers were counted (B), and the suppression of cDC-induced T-cell proliferation was assayed (C). The original number of Lin⁻CD117⁺ progenitors was 3 × 10⁴. Data are shown as the mean plus or minus SD of triplicate samples and are representative of 4 independent experiments.*P < .001; ***P > .05 compared with 50% LSC-SN-LRDC (B), cDC/CD4 T, or 50% LSC-SN-LRDC/cDC/CD4T (C). LSC-Mp indicates LSC-derived membrane proteins; 50% LSC-SN, 50% culture supernatant of LSCs.