Figure 8.
Expression levels of cytokines, interleukin‐33 (IL‐33) and fibrinogen‐like 2 (Fgl‐2) gene in the liver of murine hepatitis virus (MHV) 3‐infected wild‐type (WT) and Toll‐like receptor 2 (TLR2) knockout (KO) mice. Groups of six or seven C57BL/6 (WT) and TLR2 KO mice were intraperitoneally (i.p.) infected with 1000 TCID50 of MHV3. At 24, 48 or 72 hr p.i., livers from each group were collected. mRNA fold increases for IL‐6 (a), tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) (c), IL‐33 (e), and the Fgl‐2 (f) were evaluated by quantitative RT‐PCR in livers of infected mice. Values represent fold change in gene expression relative to mock‐infected mice (arbitrary value of 1) after normalization with HPRT expression. Production levels of IL‐6 (b) and TNF‐α (d) were quantified in livers by ELISA tests at 72 hr p.i. (*P < 0·05; **P < 0·01; ***P < 0·001).