Mtb strains induce heterogeneous cytokine profiles in macrophages.

<p>(A) Phylogenetic distribution of the studied Mtb strains within the different subgroups of the Bj family defined by the presence or absence of the genomic deletions RD105, RD181, RD150, and RD142. (B) WT BMDM were infected with the laboratory reference strain (H37Rv) or with various Mtb strains of the Bj lineage (HN878 to 02-171). Six hours post-infection supernatants were harvested and the production of the indicated cytokines assessed by immunoassay. Each bar represents Mean±SEM of triplicate wells in three independent experiments. bdl, below detection level. (C) WT BMDM were infected with Mtb strains H37Rv (open circles) or 02-171 (close circles) at different moi. Six hours post-infection the supernatant of the infected cultures was harvested and the amount of secreted TNF measured by immunoassay. Each time point represents Mean±SEM of triplicate wells. (D) WT BMDM were infected with Mtb strains H37Rv (open circles) or 02-171 (close circles) with a moi of 2 and at different time points post-infection, RNA was isolated and the expression of IFN-β determined relatively to ubiquitin. Each time point represents Mean±SEM of triplicate wells. The statistics analysis, determined by the Student’s t-test, refers to differences between each strain and H37Rv (*,p≤0.05; **,p≤0.01; ***,p≤0.001). All bacterial stocks were handed in the same way, as detailed in Materials and Methods.