FIG 4.
Influence of C. burnetii on cytokine expression 3 h after inoculation of bovine MDM (A) and alveolar macrophage (B) cultures. Cells were inoculated with C. burnetii strain NMI or NMII (MOI of 100 for 1 h). Addition of a heat-killed suspension of NMI (NMI_HI) at an equivalent bacterial cell-to-macrophage ratio or E. coli LPS (6 μg/ml) served as a control. Amounts of cytokine mRNA were normalized to GAPDH mRNA and determined relative to the cell control (set to 10°). Results are depicted as mean values with their respective SD. A randomization test with a pairwise reallocation was used to compare ΔΔCT values from 3 independent experiments (*, P ≤ 0.05; **, P ≤ 0.01; significantly different from cell control results).