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. 2015 Jun 12;10(6):e0129199. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129199

Fig 3. Cytokine profiles in PBMCs from children with low and high pneumococcal carriage densities.

Fig 3

(A) Relationship between Th17 and Tregs under normal immune homeostasis and under different diseases contexts (Figure taken from [36]). Th17 cells are the major source of IL-17A which plays a protective role against pneumococcal infection, fungal infection and extracellular bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. However, in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases such as Multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis, IL-17A is known to be pathogenic (Adapted from [12,37,38]). Comparison of (B) IL-23 and IL-22 (Th17) (C) TGF-β and IL-10 (Tregs) (D) IL-6, IFN-γ and TNF-α (pro-inflammatory cytokines) levels between children with high or low pneumococcal carriage densities. Bars represent mean ± SEM. Statistical comparisons were done using an unpaired Student’s t test.