FIGURE 5.

Relative expression of cytokine genes in eqPBMC cultured in the presence of UV‐irradiated S. vulgaris at different stages of ecdysis; S. vulgaris L3, Exsheated S. vulgaris L3 or S. vulgaris L4 (closed circle). As controls, eqPBMC were exposed to plain cKW2 medium (cKW2 pre‐culture) or supernatants collected from the L4 culture (cKW2 post‐culture; open circle). The cytokine gene expression was normalized to the geometric mean for the reference genes (SDHA and RPL32) and calibrated to that in the medium control. FC > 2 (indicated by dashed line) was considered as up‐regulated, and significant differences between larval stages are indicated by *<0.05, **<0.01, ***<0.001