FIG 7 .

Intrinsic effect of NhhA on Mφ differentiation and polarization in vivo. CD46^+/+ mice (n = 6) were challenged i.p. with 10⁸ wild-type (WT) or NhhA-deficient (ΔNhhA) FAM20 bacteria for 12 h, and the total peritoneal cells and peritoneal fluids were isolated for further analysis. (A) Representative fluorescence-activated cell sorting plots showing percentage of Mo (F4/80^med CD11b^med) and Mφ (F4/80^hi CD11b^hi) in isolated peritoneal cells. (B) Cytokine response in peritoneal Mφ. The left panel shows transcriptional levels of IL-12b and IL-10 in peritoneal Mφ as determined by qPCR; the right panel shows protein levels of IL-10 in peritoneal fluids as determined by ELISA. (C) iNOS response in peritoneal Mφ. The left panel shows transcriptional levels of iNOS in peritoneal Mφ as determined by qPCR; the right panel shows the amounts of nitrite determined in peritoneal fluids. qPCR data in panels B and C were normalized and expressed as fold change compared with the WT bacterium-stimulated group. Bars represent the mean ± standard deviation (*, P < 0.05 [paired Student’s t test]).