FIG. 1.

Effects of BCG vaccination and stimuli on IL-1β and RANTES mRNA expression in splenocytes. Whole spleen cells (2 × 10⁷ cells) from naïve and BCG-vaccinated guinea pigs (4 to 6 weeks after vaccination) were stimulated in vitro with ConA or PMA plus ionomycin (IM) for 24 h or with LPS for 1.5 h. The total RNA extracted was subjected to Northern blot analysis, and the levels of expression were analyzed with a phosphorimager. (A) Representative RNA blot; (B) densitometric analysis of IL-1β; (C) densitometric analysis of RANTES. The densitometric results for unstimulated naïve cultures are set to 100% basal. Each bar represents the mean based on four experiments, and the error bars indicate standard errors. The differences between naïve and BCG-vaccinated groups were examined by ANOVA (P < 0.009). The differences within the naïve and BCG-vaccinated groups were analyzed by Student's t test or Dunnett's test. A dagger indicates that the P value was <0.02 to 0.05 for a comparison with the data obtained for unstimulated cells, and an asterisk indicates that the P value was <0.001 in comparison with the data obtained for unstimulated cells.