Figure 7.

Dexamethasone decreases phagocytosis of murine macrophages against CD2-a Escherichia coli strain, but not on Nod2−/−. Wild type (WT) and Nod2−/− macrophages treated with 100 nM Dex for 24 h were infected with E. coli strains (multiplicity of infection: 10). Amikacin protection assay was performed 30 min after infection to evaluate phagocytic levels. (A) Absolute intracellular CFU count. (B) Normalization to vehicle. Two-way ANOVA and Dunnet corrections were performed (n = 5; ***p < 0.001 compared to vehicle). Student’s t-test was performed to compare absolute numbers between WT and Nod2−/− (n = 5; **p < 0.01).