TABLE 5.

Mean ΔC_T and mean slope of cytokine gene expression in intestinal lymph cells of nematode-naïve and-primed sheep during experimental infection with T. colubriformis^a

Cytokine	Value for naive sheep (n = 10)		Value for primed sheep (n = 8)
	Mean ΔCT ± SE	Mean slope ± SE	Mean ΔCT ± SE	Mean slope ± SE
IL-5	16.4 ± 1.11	−0.03 ± 0.030	13.9 ± 1.11	−0.01 ± 0.030
IL-13	11.0 ± 0.96	−0.07 ± 0.039	10.7 ± 0.96	−0.07 ± 0.039
TNF-α	8.2 ± 0.51	−0.01 ± 0.022	7.1 ± 0.51	0.11 ± 0.022
IL-10	11.3 ± 0.71	−0.02 ± 0.026	9.5 ± 0.75b	0.03 ± 0.027
IFN-γ	9.3 ± 0.80	−0.04 ± 0.021	9.0 ± 0.80	0.02 ± 0.021
IL-4	11.2 ± 0.41	0.02 ± 0.020	10.2 ± 0.41	0.02 ± 0.020

^aFor each animal samples were collected daily over a period of 18 to 21 days. The lymphatic compartment and the genotype of the animals were not taken into consideration. ΔC_T represents the difference in threshold cycles for the target and house keeping genes. Therefore, low ΔC_T values represent high gene expression levels, and high ΔC_T values represent low gene expression levels.

^bSignificantly (< 0.01) higher IL-10 gene expression in nematode-primed than in nematode-naïve sheep during infection with T. colubriformis.