We also evaluated the infiltration of inflammatory cells in the kidney. Representative images for F4/80 and CD3 staining in both groups are shown in Fig. 3a,b. Both the F4/80 and CD3 positive areas were significantly smaller in the α-GalCer group than those in the vehicle group (Fig. 3c,d). The renal messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels for a dendritic cell marker (CD11c) and a plasma cell marker (CD138) did not significantly differ between the two groups (Supplementary Fig. S1).Figure 3Alpha-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) treatment decreases the infiltration of inflammatory cells into the kidney. Representative images of (a) F4/80-stained and (b) CD3-stained kidney slices in the vehicle (left) and α-GalCer (right) groups. In each panel, arrows indicate F4/80 or CD3-positive areas. The percentages of the (c) F4/80-positive area and (d) CD3-positive area in each group (vehicle group; n = 5, α-GalCer group; n = 7). *p < 0.05 compared with the vehicle group.