Fig 5. Effect of AgNP and CB on IL-1β production.

After differentiation for 7 days, MDM were harvested, counted, and plated at concentrations of 0.7–1 x 10⁵ cells per well into 96-well plates. The next day, MDM were incubated with 0, 1 and 10 μg/mL of Ag20-citrate (a) or CB (b) in the presence of M.tb at MOI 10 at 37°C and 5% CO₂ in a humidified environment. MDM cultured in complete media served as negative control. Culture supernatants were collected at 6 and 8 hours and analyzed by IL-1β ELISA as described in Materials and Methods. Each data point (Y-axis) represents pg/mL of IL-1β ± SD from three independent experiments. Statistically significant changes relative to M.tb-exposed MDM (0 on X-axes) were determined by two-tailed unpaired t-test and marked by ** (p < 0.01) or *** (p <0.001).