Figure 2.

Effects of Bio-Three re-stimulation on cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated at 1 wk after consumption, compared with controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (10⁵ cells/mL) were stimulated at a host cell: bacteria ratio of 1:1, 1:10 and 1:100. A: At 24 h after bacterial stimulation, cell culture supernatants were collected and cytokine levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; B: The remaining cells in the culture plates were mixed with TRIzol Reagent, and cytokine mRNA expression was analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The fold increases were compared to that of control cells, which was set at 1. The columns represent the means and the error bars indicate the SD. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01 vs control cells; ^cP < 0.05, ^dP < 0.01 vs controls at the same host cell:bacteria ratio. IFN-γ: Interferon-γ; IL-4: Interleukin-4; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α.