Figure 4.
IL-10 level and IFN-γ/IL-10 ratio in whole-blood cultures. (A) IL-10 was measured in the same clarified supernatants from whole-blood cultures used to quantify other cytokines. IL-10 was measured in 53 control subjects (open bars) and 47 patients with pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria (pNTM) (closed bars). Data shown are the mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was unchanged after multivariate analysis adjusted for age, gender, body mass index, and height. (B) The IFN-γ/IL-10 ratio was determined in 53 control subjects (open bars) and 47 patients with pNTM (closed bars). Data shown are the results as means ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ****P < 0.0001 compared with corresponding control subjects. 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.