Figure 1.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) affects the expression levels of interleukin (IL)-18, IL-18Rα and IL-18Rβ in the mouse kidney. C57BL/6 mice were injected intraperitoneally with 30 mg/kg LPS and sacrificed at 18 and 120 h after LPS injection. At 18 and 120 h, CD4⁺ T cells and F4/80⁺ cells were isolated using a BD FACSAria^TM special-order research product with purities of 90–95% from splenocytes in C57BL/6 WT mice. Gene expressions of IL-18, IL-18Rα and IL-18Rβ were measured by real-time PCR. In each experiment, the expression levels were normalized to the expression of 18SrRNA and were expressed relative to the values of saline-treated control mice. The data are the mean fold-increase ± SEM: ** p < 0.01, **** p < 0.0001, the mice without and with LPS injection at 0 and 120 h (n = 4 and n = 6) vs. 18 h (n = 4) after LPS injection.