Figure 3.

Comparison of cytokine profile assessed by intracellular cytokine staining of mice infected with bioluminescent Mycobacterium ulcerans after 8 (A) and 17 (B) weeks of infection to naive, noninfected mice. Error bars represent standard error of the mean. Mice with advanced clinical pathology sacrificed at week 8 of the experiment displayed highly elevated IFN-γ, as well as IL-6 and IL-10 levels (A). IFN-γ is known to activate macrophages and is a key regulator in granuloma formation in mycobacterial infections. At week 17, infected mice with no apparent pathology had higher IFN-γ counts than other mice, as well as slightly elevated IL-2 levels.