Figure 10. S. aureus biofilms skew macrophage gene expression towards an alternatively activated (M2) phenotype.
Bone marrow-derived macrophages from GFP Tg mice were incubated with 6 day-old biofilms or planktonic bacteria for 2 h, whereupon viable macrophages were purified by FACS and RNA immediately isolated for qRT-PCR analysis. Gene expression levels in macrophages exposed to S. aureus biofilms were calculated after normalizing signals against GAPDH and are presented as the fold-change relative to macrophages incubated with planktonic bacteria. Results represent the mean ± SEM of four independent experiments (*, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.001).