Fig. 3

Effect of triatomine saliva in pro-inflammatory cytokines and IL-10 on DCs stimulated with LPS. Bone marrow cells derived from C57BL/6 mice were collected and cultured for 7 days in the presence of GM-CSF to allow differentiation into DCs. DCs were then pre-incubated with triatomine saliva (P. lignarius, M. pallidipennis, T. lecticularia and R. prolixus) for 1 h. DCs were then stimulated for an additional 18 h with LPS (100 ng/ml). The culture supernatant was then collected and analyzed to detect TNF-α (a-d), IL-6 (e-h), IL-12 p40 (i-l) and IL-10 (m-p) by ELISA. Bars represent the mean ± standard error production level of TNF-α, IL-12 p40, IL-6 and IL-10 in cultured DCs from triplicate experiments. *P < 0.05 compared with DCs cultured with LPS