FIG. 3.

Inhibition of TNF activity by sTNF-R in sera from healthy donors and leprosy patients (with TT and LL forms and BL type I and LL type II reactional states of the disease). The capacity of sTNF-R to inhibit rTNF cytolytic activity (1 μg/ml) was analyzed on L929 cells incubated in the presence of rTNF (□), rTNF plus human sera (▨), rTNF plus human sera together with anti-TNF-RI and anti-TNF-RII MAb (■), or human sera plus anti-TNF-RI and anti-TNF-RII MAb (▤). Results of three independent experiments are expressed as means ± standard deviations of percentages of cytotoxicity. ✶, significantly different (P < 0.05) from values for healthy donors (Mann-Whitney U test).