Figure 7.

IL-27 neutralization increases the IFN-γ response of splenic T cells in BALB/c mice (clear bars) and C57BL/6 (patterned bars) mice were infected i.p. with 1 × 10⁸ promastigotes. Twenty-four hours after infection, BALB/c mice were treated i.p. with 20 μg of IL-27 neutralizing antibody (a-IL-27, dark-gray bars) or IgG isotype control (IgG, light-gray bars), while C57BL/6 received i.p. 1 μg of mouse recombinant IL-27 (+rIL-27, dark-gray patterned bars) or the same volume of PBS (PBS, light-gray patterned bars). Non-infected (NI) counterparts were always used as controls (white bars, clear for BALB/c and patterned for C57BL/6 mice). Twenty-four or 72 h after treatment, mice were euthanized and the spleen collected and homogenized. Splenocytes were counted with an automatic cell counter, washed, and in vitro cultured during 4 h in the presence of PMA + Ionomycin and Brefeldin A. Cells were then extra- and intracellularly stained and acquired by flow cytometry. Bars represent the mean and SEM of the three independent experiments, a minimum of four animals was analyzed per condition and experiment. Unpaired t-test was used to assess statistical significances (*p ≤ 0.05 and **p ≤ 0.01).