Figure 2.

Assessment of bacterial NOD2 agonist levels in the plasma of AAS and CAS patients. Human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cells transfected with nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD) 2 and nuclear factor (NF)-κB luciferase expression plasmids were stimulated with plasma from abdominal aortic surgery (AAS) and carotid artery surgery (CAS) patients. After six hours of incubation, luciferase activity in cell extracts was measured, and NF-κB activation was calculated as fold induction with respect to time point 1 (T₁). T₁ (before anesthesia), T₂ (before incision), T₃ (before clamping), T₄ (after blood reperfusion), POD1 (postoperative day 1), and POD2 (postoperative day 2). Data are shown as median and interquartile range. The two groups were compared using analysis of variance repeated measurement and least significant difference. P-value (P = 0.003) indicates the significant difference between the two patient groups in whole study time. * P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 are from the comparison of the two groups at each time point (Mann-Whitney U test). CAS = white boxes; AAS = grey boxes. Black and white circles (T₂ to POD2) indicate values within 5th percentile and out of 95th percentile, respectively.