FIG. 4.

Ex vivo cytokine release capacity of blood from healthy donors or borreliosis patients stimulated with Borrelia lysate. Whole blood, either from healthy donors (hd, n = 24) or from patients with Lyme disease (ld, n = 10), diluted 1:5 was incubated with 10 μg of protein/ml of Borrelia lysate for 24 h at 37°C. Cytokine levels in the cell-free supernatant were measured by ELISA. Data are shown as box-and-whiskers plots. P values of ≤0.001 were considered significant and are indicated by ∗∗∗.