“…Splenocytes were isolated and cultured as previously described [ 9 , 30 ]. Briefly, splenocytes (4 × 105 cells/well) were cultured for 48 h on flat-bottomed 96 well plates (Corning Costar, Cambridge, MA, USA) coated with 5 μg/mL anti-CD3ε monoclonal antibody (mAb) in 200 μL Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 medium (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) containing 50 μM 2-mercaptoethanol (Nacalai Tesque, Inc., Kyoto, Japan) and supplemented with 10% ( v / v ) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS) (SAFC Biosciences, Lenexa, KS, USA) and 1% ( v / v ) antibiotic-antimycotic solution (10,000 U/mL penicillin, 10,000 μg/mL streptomycin and 25 μg/mL amphotericin B; Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD, USA).…”