Figure 5. DEX pre-treatment and MCMV infection cooperatively induced IL-10 production in vitro and in vivo, and suppressed inflammation in the liver.

A. DEX pre-treatment and MCMV infection cooperatively increased IL-10 mRNA expression in DCs. DCs were pre-treated with DEX (10⁻⁷ or 10⁻⁸ M) for 30 min, and were infected with MCMV (1×10⁶ pfu) for 6 hours. Bars represent means and standard errors of fold changes of the IL-10 mRNA expression. **: p<0.01, compared to the 2 conditions indicated. B & C. DEX pre-treatment and MCMV infection cooperatively induced IL-10 production in mice and suppressed inflammation in their livers. Female mice were pre-treated with DEX (0.3 µg/g animal) twice (at 24 hours and 1 hour prior to viral injection), and were infected with MCMV (1×10⁶ pfu). Two days after the infection, sera and livers were collected. Panel B shows alternation in the serum IL-10 concentrations in mice, while panel C demonstrates representative images of the H&E staining of their livers (magnification 10×). The inset of the left lower panel shows an inflammatory site in the liver caused by MCMV infection (magnification 40×). Bars represent means and standard errors of the serum IL-10 concentrations obtained from three mice. ***: p<0.001, compared to virus infection alone.