Figure 5

I. scapularis saliva mitigates cytokine secretion by macrophages during A. phagocytophilum stimulation in a dose-dependent manner. BMDMs (1×10⁶) from C57BL/6 mice were stimulated with the wild-type A. phagocytophilum HZ strain (MOI 50) for 18 hours in the presence or absence of tick saliva (1:150 and 1:300 dilution). (A) IL-6, (B) IL-12p40 and (C) TNF-α were measured by ELISA. Responses were measured in triplicate and presented as mean ± SEM within the representative experiment. *P < .05, One-way ANOVA, post-hoc Bonferroni; (-) non-stimulated cells. NS – not significant.