Figure 2. Cytokine production in response to schistosomal products in PBMC cultures.

PBMCs were stimulated with schistosomal egg antigen (SEA) or adult worm antigen (AWA). White and grey boxes correspond to S. haematobium-free and infected children respectively with the whiskers indicating minimal and maximal concentrations. * p<0.05; ** p<0.01. Panel A: Cytokine production did not differ between groups at 24 h (mainly innate response) but the adaptive IL-10 response after 72 h of incubation to both schistosomal products was significantly higher in infected children than in S. haematobium-free children. Furthermore, only infected children produced a significant innate TNF-α response to schistosomal products at 24 h. These plots are not adjusted for spontaneous cytokine production. Panel B: After 24 h (predominantly innate), most cytokine ratios induced by schistosomal products were more anti-inflammatory than the ratios induced by medium alone. When the adaptive response had developed after 72 h however, only infected children produced significant anti-inflammatory cytokine balances while pro-inflammatory indices were lower in infected children than in uninfected children (AWA; p<0.05).