Figure 2.

Cytokine/chemokine transcriptional induction in endometrial HEC-1A cells by bacterial co-culture. Endometrial cells were cultured in the absence (control) or presence of alive or killed A. vaginae, or P. somerae, or L. vaginalis. After 24 hrs, cultured cells were collected for total RNA extraction and subsequent analysis by qPCR microarray, capable of evidencing simultaneously transcriptional up- or down-regulation of 84 different cytokines. Results refer to triplicate samples from two independent experiments, and are expressed as mean fold-change value compared to control values ± SD. Control values, obtained in uninfected cells or in cells exposed to killed bacteria, were superimposable and corresponded to a value = 1±0.1 fold-change for all analyzed transcripts. Student’s t test with Bonferroni correction for multiple analyses was used for statistical analysis; a corrected p value < 0.05 was considered as significant (indicated by asterisks).