Pull-down assay. CD4+ T cells were stimulated with PMA and ionomycin for 2 h at 37°C. The cells were pelleted, resuspended in buffer C (20 mM HEPES [pH 7.9], 420 mM NaCl, 1.5 mM MgCl2, 0.2 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, protease inhibitors [Sigma]. and 0.1% NP-40) and lysed on ice for 15 min. Insoluble material was removed by centrifugation. The supernatant was diluted 1:3 with buffer D (as buffer C, but without NaCl). The lysates were incubated with 10 μg of poly(dI-dC) (Sigma) and 70 μl of streptavidin-agarose (Amersham Biosciences) carrying biotinylated oligonucleotides, for 3 h at 4 °C. The beads were washed twice with buffer C:D (1:3) and resuspended in DTT-containing loading buffer (NuPAGE; Invitrogen), heated to 70 °C for 10 min, and the eluants on a NuPAGE 4–12% bis-tris gel (Invitrogen). The proteins were electroblotted onto a PVDF membrane (Amersham Biosciences) and detected using an anti-GATA3 mAb (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Accumulated signals were analyzed using AIDA software (Raytest).