Fig. 6. Murine infection with BPSMΔprn results in a different immune response compared to BPSM.
a Balb/c mice were infected with 106 CFU of the parental BPSM, BPSMΔprn or left uninfected as control. Serum for cytokine analysis and lungs for RNA sequencing were collected on day 3 and day 7 post infection. Bacterial DNA load in the lungs was determined using a b qPCR on the Bordetella-specific target gene vag8 relative to the murine household gene ptger2. In serum of BPSM-, BPSMΔprn-infected and control mice, the presence of c TNF-α, d IL-6, e G-CSF, f IL-17, g KC/IL-8, h IL-1β, i IFN-γ, and j IL-5 was determined on both time points post-infection. k Venn diagram showing the amount of differentially expressed genes on day 3 and 7 in the lungs of mice infected with BPSMΔprn, as compared to BPSM infected mice, based on averaged normalized gene expression levels of groups. RNA sequence data on day 7 was analysed using the l diseases or function annotation tool of the software programme Ingenuity from Qiagen. The animal experiment was performed using six mice per infection group per time point and six control uninfected mice. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001