Fig. 4. Periodontal inflammation following polymicrobial oral infection is reduced by nisin.

A Total bacteria amount, (B) Gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine, and (C) Histopathological evaluation in periodontal tissue of the maxillary specimens (Scale bar: 1000 μm in the upper panel and 200 μm in the lower panel, respectively). D The number of inflammatory cells per 1.0 mm² of connective tissue, and (E) Average calculated linear distance between the CEJ and ABC in histological image. The data in the bar graphs are shown as means ± standard deviation. Box-plots display the median, first quartiles (25th percentile), third quartiles (75th percentile), and minimum and maximum whiskers, with all data points plotted. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 between groups with Tukey tests for real-time PCR analysis (n = 5) and histological analysis (n = 3), respectively.