FIG. 1.

Growth of M. fermentans in liquid medium and IL-6 production-inducing activity in the cultural supernatant. M. fermentans was grown in liquid medium, and a 2-ml aliquot of the culture was taken periodically and divided into two portions. One portion was used to determine the pH (○) and the number of viable cells (CFU/ml, □). The other was centrifuged at 100,000 × g for 1 h to separate the cultural supernatant, which was used to determine the ability to induce IL-6 production by HGF (●).