Fig. 3.

Serum IL-13Rα2 increases in subjects chronically infected with S. mansoni. Schistosomiasis mansoni subjects (380) living in an endemic region in Uganda with evidence of chronic infection (eggs detectable in stool) were bled and then treated with praziquantel. One hundred uninfected controls from North America were also bled to establish a normal range for the soluble IL-13Rα2. Receptor levels in serum are shown in box and whisker plots. The median response is represented by the horizontal black line within a box that represents the 25th to 75th percentile range. Whiskers represent the range of data excluding outliers. The means and P values for each group are also shown (each patient group compared with uninfected controls). Patients in the low 0–200 eggs per g group were also significantly different from the heavily infected (>1,000 eggs per g of feces) group (P = 0.03).