Figure 3.
IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and RANTES levels in whole-blood cultures. Measured levels of (A) IL-1β, (B) IL-6, (C) IL-8, and (D) RANTES were measured in clarified supernatants from whole-blood cultures of 53 control subjects (open bars) and 47 patients with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria (closed bars). Data shown are the mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was unchanged after multivariate analysis adjusted for age, gender, body mass index, and height. 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.