Figure 2.
IFN-γ, IL-12, and TNF-α levels in whole-blood cultures. Measured levels of (A) IFN-γ, (B) IL-12, (C) IL-18, and (D) TNF-α in diluted whole-blood cultures were quantified from 53 control subjects (open bars) and 47 patients with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria (pNTM) (closed bars) for IFN-γ, IL-12, TNF-α, and 11 subjects from each group for IL-18. Whole-blood cultures were incubated for 18 hours in the presence of RPMI medium alone (Unstim), 20 ng/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS), 6.2 μg of heat-killed Staphylococcus epidermidis protein/ml (Staph), or 5.5 × 106 live Mycobacterium intracellulare (MAC)/ml. Data shown are the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ****P < 0.0001 compared with corresponding control subjects. Statistical significance was unchanged after multivariate analysis adjusted for age, gender, body mass index, and height.