Figure 2.

TLR2 agonist short treatment impacts the cytokine production and the fungicidal activity of the ex vivo produced macrophages. (A) Schematic protocol (as described in section Materials and Methods). WT mice were injected intravenously with 100 μg of Pam₃CSK₄ and Lin⁻ HSPCs were recovered from bone marrow on day 1 for ex vivo differentiation to macrophages. Lin⁻ cells were plated at a density of 200,000 cells in 4 ml of media containing SCF and M-CSF, and incubated for 7 days to induce macrophage production, in the presence or absence of inactivated yeasts of C. albicans (1:7.5 murine cell:yeast ratio). (B) For cytokine assays and fungicidal activity determination macrophages were plated and challenged as indicated in Figure 1B. Triplicate samples were analyzed in each assay. Results are expressed as means ± SD of pooled data from two experiments. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001, and ****P < 0.0001 with respect to macrophages derived from control untreated mice, ^#P < 0.05 and ^###P < 0.001 with respect to cytokine production by macrophages derived from HSPCs differentiated with M-CSF only, in the absence of inactivated yeasts, and ^•P < 0.05, and ^•••P < 0.001 with respect to macrophages derived from control untreated mice.