Figure 5.

Prolonged administration of C23–45 HMGB1 in vivo reflects the septic immunophenotype. Balb/c mice received daily intraperitoneal injections of 500 μg recombinant HMGB1 or saline for 3 or 4 weeks and were then killed. The immunophenotype was compared between HMGB1- and saline-treated animals: spleen weight (a), splenocyte count (b) and circulating white blood cell (WBC) counts (c) were measured. Splenocytes were isolated and cultured for 24 h with or without 25 ng mL⁻¹ endotoxin. TNF (d) and IL-6 (e) in the culture medium were measured by cytokine bead array. Values are mean ± SD (n = 5 mice/group). *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01.