Figure 2.

(A) Rv3131 stimulates the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in THP-1 cells. THP-1 cells differentiated by PMA were stimulated with 10–2500 ng/ml of rRv3131 or LPS (100 ng/ml) or proteinase K digested rRv3131 for 24 and 48 h. Supernatants were collected and the levels of secreted cytokines were estimated by ELISA. Data represent the mean ± SEM of three technical replicates. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.005; ***p < 0.0005. (B) Cytokine gene expression: relative expression of TNF-α and IL-8 in THP-1 cell lines treated with rRv3131 (1000 ng) and LPS (100 ng) was evaluated by quantitative real time-PCR (qRT-PCR). PPIB was used as endogenous control for normalization. The data represent mean ± SEM of triplicates.