IL-2 upregulates antiapoptotic proteins. (A) Western blot of cytoplasmic and nuclear total and phosphorylated STAT5 and GR in murine CD8 T cells pretreated or not with 10 ng/mL of IL-2 followed by treatment with vehicle control or 1 µM DEX for 30 minutes. β-actin is used as a cytoplasmic loading control and p84 is used as a nuclear loading control. The numbers below each panel of images represent the ratio between total or phosphorylated STAT5 or GR and the relevant cytoplasmic or nuclear loading control obtained via image quantification. (B) Fold change in transcript expression of the direct GR target genes Bcl2l11, Gilz, and Fkbp5 in murine CD8 T cells pretreated or not with 10 ng/mL of IL-2 for 1 hour followed by treatment with vehicle control or 1 µM DEX for 4 hours in technical triplicate. Fold change values are relative to untreated or IL-2–treated cells, respectively. (C) MFIs and representative histograms of BCL-2, BCL-xL, and MCL-1 protein expression in murine CD8 T cells in the basal state or following exposure to 10 ng/mL of IL-2 with or without 500 nM RUX for 24 hours in technical triplicate. Statistical significance was assessed using 2-sample Student t tests (B) or 1-way ANOVA with Tukey’s method for multiple comparisons adjustment (C). All data are representative of 3 independent experiments. ****P < .0001; ***P < .001; **P < .01; *P < .05.