Figure 2.

The T. gondii-primed immune response promotes a storm of cytokines associated with CLP. C57BL/6 mice were infected with 5 cysts of T. gondii, and 40 days after infection, the mice were subjected to CLP. Twenty-four hours after CLP, the serum and peritoneal lavage were collected for cytokine analysis. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ (A,E), TNF-ɑ (B,F), IL-6 (C,G), and the chemokine KC (D,H) were determined using ELISA. Data are presented as the means ± SEM for 4 animals per group in three different experiments (ANOVA followed by Tukey's test; ^*p < 0.05; ^**p < 0.01; ^***p < 0.001).