Inflammatory cytokine production is dysregulated in P2X7R^-/- mice compared with wild type in association with toxoplasmic ileitis.

<p>Male mice (6–8 weeks old) were infected orally with 10 <i>T</i>. <i>gondii</i> Me49 cysts and euthanased 8 days post-infection. Ileal homogenates were collected for quantification of cytokine levels by ELISA (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, TNF, MCP-1, IFN-γ) or Griess assay (reactive nitrogen intermediates) as described in the Materials and Methods. Sera was analyzed for IL-18. Following infection, P2X7R^-/- mice (n = 10) exhibited significantly higher levels of (A) IL-12, (B) IFN-γ, (C) TNF, (D) IL-6 (E) IL-1β, (F) IL-18, (G) MCP-1 and (H) reactive nitrogen intermediates compared with infected C57BL/6J (n = 10) or uninfected mice (n = 5) of either strain (P<0.05). Results are presented as the mean ± SEM for one of three experiments that generated similar data. ^aindicates a significant difference (P<0.05, two-way ANOVA coupled to Tukey’s post-hoc test at each day post infection) compared with infected C57BL/6J mice, ^bindicates a significant difference (P<0.05, two-way ANOVA coupled to Tukey’s post-hoc test at each day post infection) between infected and uninfected mice of the same strain.