Figure 1.

Mycobacterium scrofulaceum-114R elicits cord formation and enhanced expression of proinflammatory cytokines in BMDMs. (A) The colony type of M. scrofulaceum-ATCC, -113S, and -114R on 7H10 agar plates was characterized microscopically at ×40 (a) and ×100 magnification (b), and the cords formed in broth culture after 14 days of incubation were heat fixed and then stained with crystal violet (c). (B and C) BMDMs were infected with different clinical M. scrofulaceum strains (MOI=3) for the indicated times. The mRNA expression and production of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-12p40 were evaluated by semi-quantitative RT-PCR (B) and ELISA (C), respectively. The relative expression levels were normalized against those of β-actin (B, bottom). The data show the means±SD from three independent experiments. U; uninfected control.