FIG. 3.

Effect of oral administration of L. casei strain Shirota on production of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-4 by nasal lymphocytes. Nasal lymphocytes from aged mice fed either the control diet (n = 8) (white bar) or the L. casei strain Shirota diet (n = 8) (black bar) were cultured in the presence of ConA. Supernatants were collected 72 h after the initiation of culture, and the concentrations of various cytokines were determined. Each bar represents the mean ± standard deviation (error bar) of triplicate samples. * and **, statistically significant difference from the control by Student’s t test at a P value of <0.01 and <0.05, respectively.