FIG. 2.
B. anthracis spores stimulate chemokines and cytokines in the human lung slice tissue model. Lung slices were exposed to 1 × 106 spores in the presence of gentamicin for the times indicated. Spore diluent was used as a negative control, and LPS (1 μg/ml) was used as a positive control. Chemokine and cytokine protein levels were determined by ELISA using lung slice supernatants. The data are expressed as the means ± SEM from four separate lung slice donor experiments, and three tissue slices were used per experiment. Statistical significance was determined by ANOVA. Means were compared to data for the negative control group. One asterisk, P < 0.05; two asterisks, P < 0.01.