Figure 4. Presence of MRSA on HSEs leads to enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokine induction irrespective to thermal wounding.

IL-6 and IL-8 expression by HSEs 24 hours after thermal wounding and/or MRSA was measured by quantitative PCR and ELISA. The (a) IL-6 mRNA expression (b) IL-6 protein production (c) IL-8 mRNA expression and (d) IL-8 protein levels of thermal wounded and control HSEs and HSEs thermal wounded and exposed to MRSA. N=7-9. * P<0.05, as compared to control HSEs.