FIG 5.

Analysis of the expression of IL-32, IL-6, and IL-8 in cells exposed to S. aureus LAC wt and its mutants. PS cells (2 × 10⁵) were grown for 24 h. The cells were then exposed to LAC wt and to the deletion mutants LAC Δpsmα and LAC Δpsmαβhld at an MOI of 80:1 for 8 h, 24 h, and 48 h. An mRNA expression was measured in total RNA preparation by qRT-PCR. After normalization using PPIA and RPL19 genes, interleukin expression was calculated relative to the values obtained from mock cells, arbitrarily set to 1. According to ANOVA with post hoc Tukey's HSD test, there was a statistically significant difference between interleukin expression levels in cells exposed either to LAC wt or deletion mutants and mock cells, except for IL-32 expression in LAC wt-treated cells for 8 h. There were also statistically significant differences between interleukin expression levels in cells exposed to LAC wt and corresponding deletion mutants as indicated with asterisks. Data were calculated from three different experiments performed in triplicate. P values of <0.05 (*) and <0.01 (**) were considered significant.