Figure 6.

PM_2.5 exposure increases IL-10 expression in PBMC. (A,B) PBMC from six study subjects were pre-exposed to PM_2.5 (5 µg/mL) for 20 h followed by infection with M.tb MOI 1 and 5 or stimulation with purified protein derivative (PPD) (10 µg/mL), phytohemagglutinin (PHA) (5 µg/mL) or LPS (100 ng/mL) for 18 h. Surface staining with anti-CD3 and anti-CD14 monoclonal antibodies was performed followed by permeabilization and intracellular staining for detection of IL-10 by flow cytometry. The values represent the percentage of CD3⁺ and CD14⁺ PBMC expressing of IL-10, in six independent experiments, as 5/95 percentile box-and-whiskers where the center represents the 50th percentile, the upper hinge the 75th percentile, and the lower hinge the 25th percentile. Statistically significant increases between proportions of cells expressing IL-10 in uninfected and PM_2.5-exposed PBMC are shown with single (p < 0.05) or double (p < 0.01) asterisks while statistically significant increases between results for M.tb-infected and PM-exposed-M.tb-infected PBMC are shown with single (p < 0.05), double (p < 0.01) or triple (p < 0.001) asterisks.