The effect of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bl-04 and pIC + R848 on human macrophage and dendritic cell cytokine responses. Cells were stimulated or left unstimulated with Bl-04 (10 bacteria/cell) and/or pIC (15 μg/ml) + R848 (5 μM) for 24 h (Mf) or 48 h (DC). Cytokine concentrations in the supernatants were measured by ELISA (Mf: A-F; DC: G-N) and the mean of six donors (pg/ml) with standard deviation is shown. DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide was used as a vehicle control for pIC + R848. The data were analyzed with a linear model using change from baseline as response (Ctrl vs Bl-04; or pIC + R848 vs Bl-04 + pIC + R848). Different comparisons are separated with a dashed line. N = 6, for pIC + R848 technical replicates were used. *: 0.01 ≤ p﹤0.05, **: 0.001 ≤ p﹤0.01, ***: p < 0.001 vs ctrl and: # 0.01 ≤ p﹤0.05, ##: 0.001 ≤ p﹤0.01, ##: p < 0.001 vs pIC + R848.