Fig. 1

 C. tropicalis promotes the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs through Dectin-3. A The scheme showing the process of inducing bone marrow cells to differentiate into MDSCs. B RNA-seq analysis showing the upregulated genes associated with the immunosuppressive function in MDSCs stimulated with heat-inactivated C. tropicalis (MOI = 2) for 6 h (n = 3). C WT and Clec4d^−/− MDSCs were stimulated with heat-inactivated C. tropicalis (MOI = 1) for 6 h. Nos2, Ptgs2 and Cybb mRNA expression were measured by quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR). D WT and Clec4d^−/− MDSCs were stimulated with heat-inactivated C. tropicalis (MOI = 1) for 48 h. Cell lysates were analyzed by immunoblotting for iNOS, COX2 and NOX2. E and F WT and Clec4d^−/− MDSCs were stimulated with heat-inactivated C. tropicalis (MOI = 5) for the indicated time or 48 h. NO concentration in culture supernatants was measured by NO assay kit (E). ROS production was analyzed by flow cytometry. Representative histograms of ROS production in WT and Clec4d^−/− MDSCs was shown (F). G and H The suppressive effect of MDSCs on the proliferation of CD8⁺ T cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. The results shown here are expressed as the mean ± SEM. Each panel is a representative experiment of at least three independent biological replicates. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. The following statistical analyses were performed: unpaired Student’s t-test or one-way ANOVA where appropriate