Impact of steroids on cytokine gene expression.

<p>Mice received either prednisolone (Pred) or aldosterone (Aldo) three hours after after transtympanic inoculation with <i>H flu</i> and harvested four hours later (total seven hours post inoculation). Expression of several of the cytokine genes was reduced compared to <i>H flu</i> only mice shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0119228#pone.0119228.g001" target="_blank">Fig. 1</a>. In general, both Pred and Aldo were similar in their suppression of the genes impacted by the bacteria. Although a few genes showed significant effects with Pred and not Aldo (IL-6, Cxcl2, TNFα), the differences in effects of the two steroids were minimal.