Fig 3.

Kinetics of IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-17A gene expression in spleen cells from C57BL/6 or BALB/c mice during the course of B. melitensis infection. C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice were injected i.p. with PBS (control) or 4 × 10⁴ CFU B. melitensis. After the indicated times, spleen cells were collected and total RNA was extracted and analyzed by real-time PCR. mRNA levels were normalized using β-actin mRNA as the reference and compared with those obtained under uninfected conditions (control). The data are expressed as the mean ± SEM of 16 animals per time point pooled from two independent experiments.