Fig. 4.

Time course analysis of innate responses to poly I:C of different MWs. a) Systemic secretion of the cytokines IL-6, TNFα and IFNβ was determined using ELISA in female adult mice following treatment with saline (n = 4 per time-point), 20 mg/kg (n = 6 per time-point) and 80 mg/kg Sigma poly I:C (n = 5–6 per time-point). b) The same animals were used for isolation of hypothalamic RNA for cDNA synthesis and qPCR for expression of key pro-inflammatory transcripts and type I interferon pathway transcripts. c) The same animals were used for isolation of hippocampal RNA to verify these patterns in hippocampus. All data are represented as mean ± SEM and were compared using two-way ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni post-hoc tests comparing differences between saline and both poly I:C groups (⁺ p < 0.05, ⁺⁺ p < 0.01 and ⁺⁺⁺ p < 0.001) and between the 2 different poly I:C preparations (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001).