FIG. 5.

Acquisition of responsiveness to AILb-A by transfection of TLR4^−/− mouse-derived PMs with the expression vector containing the mouse TLR4 gene. PMs (5 × 10⁵/ml) derived from TLR4^−/− mice were transiently transfected with 0.75 or 1.5 μg of pEFBOS expression plasmid containing the mouse TLR4 gene. Twenty-four hours later, the PMs were treated with AILb-A (0.1, 1, or 10 μg/ml) or LPS (1 μg/ml) for 48 h at 37°C, and then TNF-α (A) and IL-12 (B) in the supernatants were measured by ELISA. Bars denote standard deviations of triplicate samples. *, P < 0.01; #, P < 0.05 compared with untreated controls.