Figure 2.

Bi-dimensional scattering profiles of the plasma immune mediators according to their fold change magnitude and significance in leprosy patients, leprosy reaction patients, and household contacts compared with non-infected (NI) healthy controls. The levels of chemokines (CCL11, CXCL8, CCL3, CCL4, CCL2, CCL5, and CXCL10), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-15, and IL-17), regulatory cytokines (IL-1Ra, IL-4, IL-5, IL-9, IL-10, and IL-13), and growth factors (FGF-basic, PDGF, VEGF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-2, and IL-7) were measured in plasma samples collected from leprosy patients [L(PB) = 14, brown rectangle; L(MB) = 13, dark red rectangle], leprosy reaction patients (T1LR = 12, violet rectangle; T2LR = 11, purple rectangle), household contacts (HHC = 7, dark blue rectangle), and NI healthy controls (NI = 18). The levels of plasma immune mediators were quantified using high-throughput multiplex microbead array as described in Materials and methods. The levels of the plasma immune mediators in each study group were compared with those in NI using the Mann–Whitney test. Significance was considered at p < 0.05. The results shown are expressed as bi-dimensional scattering distribution of the log₁₀ fold change magnitude according to NI by −log₁₀ of p-values. The dashed line across the y-axis indicates the significance threshold (−log₁₀ 0.05 = 1.301). The dashed line across the x-axis defines the decrease or increase of the log₁₀ fold changes. Colored dots represent plasma immune mediators with significant differences compared with NI. Plasma immune mediators exhibiting significance with p < 0.01 (−log₁₀ = 2) are underscored by colored rectangles.