Fig. 4.
Transgeneexpression of IL-37 in the lung exerts biphasic effects on cytokine production after pneumococcal infection. WT and IL-37tg mice were challenged intranasally with S. pneumoniae D39 (5 × 107 CFU/mouse) or treated with PBS (uninfected). Lungs and peripheral blood were collected at the indicated time points for analysis of: mRNA expression of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α in lung homogenates normalized to uninfected controls by qPCR (a), and cytokine protein levels of IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1β, KC, IFN-γ, MCP-1, G-CSF, M-CSF, and IL-10 in lung homogenates and serum by Bio-Plex (b, c). Values of a are represented as means ± SEM. Column bars of b and c show means with standard errors. n ≥6 mice (a), n = 4 mice (b) per group and time point of n ≥2 independently performed experiments. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.005; *** p < 0.0005; **** p < 0.0001 WT vs. IL-37tg mice.