Infection with <i>Fasciola hepatica</i> does not inhibit IL-12 production early in infection with <i>Toxoplasma gondii.</i>

<p>BALB/c mice were infected with <i>F. hepatica</i> 5 days prior to infection with <i>T. gondii</i>. Mice infected with either <i>F. hepatica</i> alone or <i>T. gondii</i> alone were used as controls. On day 4 post <i>T. gondii</i> infection (day 9 post <i>F. hepatica</i> infection) the peritoneal cavity was rinsed with PBS and the resulting lavage was spun at 500 <i>g</i> to pellet the exudate cells. The supernatant was retained to measure the level of IL-12 being secreted into the peritoneal cavity by cytokine ELISA (B). Adherent peritoneal exudate cells (PEC) were cultured for 48 h and supernatants assayed for secretion of IL-12 by cytokine ELISA (A). Serum was collected by cardiac puncture and levels of IL-12 determined by cytokine ELISA (C). The results represent the mean±SE of one experiment with five animals per group. ^a represents groups where the values obtained were significantly different to values obtained for the <i>T. gondii</i>-only infected mice and ^b represents groups where the values obtained were significantly different to those obtained for the <i>F. hepatica</i>-only infected group (<i>P</i><0.05, Mann-Whitney non-parametric test).