Figure 2.

Kinetics of cytokine induction in porcine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) during treatment with concanavalin A (Con A). PBMC derived from a naive pig were stimulated in vitro with Con A, and cytokine transcription was quantified by quantitative, competitive reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–qcPCR) at the indicated time-points. By comparison with the non-stimulated PBMC, the induction coefficients of transcription (ICT) were determined as described in the Materials and methods. The highest ICT were found for interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) after 5 hr of stimulation with Con A, whereas IL-4 transcription was induced only after 24 hr. IL-10 transcription did not show a significant increase at any of the time-points tested.