FIG 3.

Functional TLR8 upregulation following CD4⁻-mediated macrophage differentiation. Fresh blood monocytes were purified by negative selection and differentiated for 2 days in the presence of medium only or sMHC-II and then separately stimulated with either the human TLR8-specific HIV-derived ligand ssRNA40 or control ssRNA41 for 24 h. IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-12p70 production was measured by cytokine bead array. The data represent the mean levels of expression of these cytokines from 3 separate experiments, each with separate donor cells. The error bars represent the standard deviations of the mean.