Fig 6.
RT-PCR analysis of the fold increase in expression of proteins associated with regulatory T cell and TH17 T cell responses in the lungs of guinea pigs following exposure to representative strains of the four sublineages of lineage 2. Panel A shows Foxp3, panel B shows TGF-β, and panel C shows IL-17 expression in the lungs on days 30 and 60 from guinea pigs exposed to a low dose of RD142 (4588 and 4619), RD150 (3446 and 3376), RD181 (3507 and 3393), or RD207 (5097 and 4334) sublineage strains. Cytokine mRNA expression was quantified using real-time RT-PCR. Fold induction of mRNA was calculated from the threshold cycle (CT) normalized to HPRT CT values and then to values for uninfected guinea pig lung cells. Results are expressed as the average (n = 4) of the fold induction in each group (SEM did not exceed 0.30). *, Student's t test: for Foxp3, RD181/RD207, P < 0.04; for TGF-β, RD181/RD207, P < 0.02; for IL-17, RD142/RD150, P < 0.04; for RD181/RD207, P < 0.01.