Figure 3.

Sex-based assessment of primary cytokine production and chemokines expression in the lungs of GBS-infected mice (24 h pi). (A) C57BL/6 male (n = 10) and female (n = 10) mice were infected intranasally with ± 10⁸ CFUs of GBS. TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 were measured 24 h pi, in suspension fluids of pulmonary tissue by ELISA. For naive mice, data were below the limit of detection in all samples. Extrapolated results are shown. *p < 0.05 (Mann–Whitney U test). Data are representative of those from two independent experiments. (B) Sex-based assessment of chemokines expression in the lungs of GBS-infected mice. C57BL/6 male (n = 15) and female (n = 15) mice were infected intranasally with ± 10⁸ CFUs of GBS. Relative mRNA transcripts of CXCL1, CXCL2, CCL3 and CCL2 were evaluated 24 h pi in the lungs using real-time RT-PCR. The values were normalized with two internal controls, RPL-19 and β-actin. Relative expression results were compared to those obtained for uninfected male (n = 10) and female (n = 10) control mice. *p < 0.05 (Mann–Whitney U test). Data are representative of three independent experiments.