Roles of Bim^−/− DCs in inducing autoantibody production. (A) Splenic and lymph node (LN) cells from 2-month-old Bim^−/− or wild-type (WT) control mice were incubated with cychrome anti-CD4, followed by intracellular staining with PE anti-FoxP3 and analysis by flow cytometry. Percentages of CD4⁺FoxP3⁺ Treg cells (mean ± SD) in 4 WT and Bim^−/− mice were as follows: in the spleens, 2.9 ± 0.30 (WT) and 3.6 ± 0.44 (Bim^−/−), P = .32; in the LNs, 5.6 ± 0.61 (WT) and 6.9 ± 0.35 (Bim^−/−), P = .25. (B) CD11c⁺ WT or Bim^−/− BMDCs were injected into syngenic C57BL/6 recipient mice intraperitoneally, followed by injection of LPS intraperitoneally (30 μg/mouse) 24 hours later. Sera were collected from recipient mice 1 and 2 weeks later for quantitation of ANA, anti-ssDNA, and anti-dsDNA by ELISA. The titers of the antibodies shown are representative of 3 independent experiments. Bars indicate geometric means. Statistical significances were analyzed by Student t test using GraphPad Prism version 4 for Macintosh (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA). A P value less than .05 was considered statistically significant.