Fig. 4

Effect of triatomine saliva in cytokine production of DCs without 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 18 h. The culture supernatant was then collected and analyzed to detect IL-6 (a), IL-12p40 (b), IL-10 (c) and TNF-α (data not shown) 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 medium. Abbreviations: P.l, P. lignarius; M.p, M. pallidipennis; T.l, T. lecticularia; R.p, R. prolixus