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. 2024 May 29;28:185. doi: 10.1186/s13054-024-04956-6

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

Dexamethasone attenuates the inflammatory response in mice with pneumococcal pneumonia. Inflammatory biomarkers including IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-6, keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and MCP-3 were significantly higher in infected mice compared with normal healthy control. Ceftriaxone reduced IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, and KC, but did not impact the levels of IFN-γ, MCP-1, and MCP-3. The combination of ceftriaxone and dexamethasone significantly attenuated all of these inflammatory cytokine and chemokine accumulation in the air spaces compared with untreated controls and significantly reduced IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, MCP-1, and MCP-3 as compared to ceftriaxone alone. n = 7–8/group. Data are shown as means ± SD. Statistical differences between groups were calculated with one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. P < 0.05 compared with infected groups. Abbreviations: SP streptococcus pneumoniae; CTRX ceftriaxone; DXM dexamethasone; TNF-α tumor necrosis factor-α; KC keratinocyte chemoattractant; IFN-γ interferon-γ; MCP monocyte chemoattractant protein