FIG. 1.
Pathogenic bacteria induce differential secretion of inflammatory mediators by leukocytes circulating in placental blood. Stimulation with live or heat-inactivated GBS significantly increased TNF-α and IL-6 in plasma from placental blood, while live U. urealyticum significantly increased IL-1β and PGE2. The bars represent the concentration of each marker in plasma from nonstimulated placental blood (white) or plasma from placental blood stimulated with live (black) or heat-inactivated (gray) bacteria. The data presented are means and SD of duplicate measurements from five separate experiments (***, P < 0.001; **, P = 0.001; *, P = 0.05).