FIGURE 4.

Majority of spleen macrophages in malaria parasite-infected mice does not produce inflammatory cytokines. The spleen cells from mice at 3 days postinfection with either Py17NXL or PbANKA were cultured and treated with the Golgi-Plug. The cells were then surface-stained with antibodies against the indicated marker proteins followed by intracellular staining with anti-cytokine antibodies and analyzed by flow cytometry. A, shown is the gating strategy for macrophage subsets: MM, marginal zone macrophages; MMM, marginal zone metallophilic macrophages; TBM, tingible body macrophages; RPM, red pulp macrophages. B, percent cytokine-producing macrophages from each subset; the mean values ± S.D. of a representative of four independent experiments, each performed using a group of three mice; cells from each mouse were separately analyzed. The contour plots of cytokine-expressing macrophages are shown in supplemental Fig. S2. ***, p < 0.001; ns, not significant.