Figure 5.
Cytokines and chemokines mRNA expression by A. actinomycetemcomitans-induced THP-1 human macrophages (ATCC® TIB-202™). Expression in macrophages infected at a MOI = 102 with strains ATCC® 43717TM (serotype a), ATCC® 43718TM (serotype b), and ATCC® 43719TM (serotype c), 2 and 24 h after infection. For relative expression, mRNA expression in non-infected (ni) macrophages was considered as 1, as a reference for fold-change in expression using 18S rRNA expression levels as a normalizing endogenous control. Data are represented as fold-change means and standard deviation of three independent experiments performed in duplicate. (A) IL-1β, (B) IL-6, (C) IL-8, (D) IL-18, and (E) TNF-α. Asterisks were used to indicate a value of p considered statistically significant (* p < 0.05).