Figure 1.

Inflammatory potential of the three B. burgdorferi RST genotypes in macrophage cultures. Monocyte-derived macrophages from three normal human donors were each stimulated with 28 B. burgdorferi isolates (8 RST1, 10 RST2, and 10 RST3) at a multiplicity of infection of 25 for 48 hours. Protein expression of five chemokines and four cytokines in culture supernatants was assessed simultaneously in one complete experiment using multiplex assays. A: Results are shown individually for each donor. B: Results from all three donors were averaged for comparison of the three RST groups. The box represents 25^th to 75^th percentiles; lines outside the box, 5^th to 95^th percentiles; and horizontal line in the box, median. For the comparison of RST1 with RST2 or RST3, *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, and ***P ≤ 0.001. Differences between RST2 and RST3 strains were not statistically significant.