Figure 1.
Course of IL-12α and pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression in the liver of mice during E. multilocularis infection (measured by qRT-PCR).
(A) IL12α, (B) TNF-α, (C) IL-1B, (D) IL-6. a: ‘Parasitic lesion’ versus ‘Control’; b: ‘Periparasitic liver tissue’ versus ‘Control’. *P<0.05; **P<0.01. ‘Control’, non-infected mice; ‘Parasitic lesion’: E. multilocularis metacestode and surrounding immune infiltrate; ‘Periparasitic liver tissue: liver parenchyma close to the E. multilocularis lesion, but excluding macroscopically visible liver tissue alterations. AU: arbitrary units.
Figure 2.
Course of Th1-cytokine and related chemokine gene expression in the liver of mice during E. multilocularis infection (measured by qRT-PCR).
(A) IFN-γ, (B) CXCL9, (C) CXCL10, (D) CXCL12. a: ‘Parasitic lesion’ versus ‘Control’; b: ‘Periparasitic liver tissue’ versus ‘Control’. *P<0.05; **P<0.01. ‘Control’, non-infected mice; ‘Parasitic lesion’: E. multilocularis metacestode and surrounding immune infiltrate; ‘Periparasitic liver tissue: liver parenchyma close to the E. multilocularis lesion, but excluding macroscopically visible liver tissue alterations. AU: arbitrary units.
Figure 3.
Course of Th2-cytokine and related chemokine gene expression in the liver of mice during E. multilocularis infection (measured by q RT-PCR).
(A) IL-4, (B) IL-5, (C) CCL8, (D) CCL12, (E) CCL17. a: ‘Parasitic lesion’ versus ‘Control’; b: ‘Periparasitic Liver tissue’ versus ‘Control’. *P<0.05; **P<0.01. ‘Control’, non-infected mice; ‘Parasitic lesion’: E. multilocularis metacestode and surrounding immune infiltrate; ‘Periparasitic liver tissue: liver parenchyma close to the E. multilocularis lesion, but excluding macroscopically visible liver tissue alterations. AU: arbitrary units.
Figure 4.
Th17-cytokine cytokine expression in the liver of mice during E. multilocularis infection.
(A). Expression of IL-17 at day 90. IL-17 was present in most of the infiltrating lymphocytes of areas with inflammatory granulomas, in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes, endothelial cells of the hepatic sinusoids and fibroblasts (arrow indicates the area also shown at high magnification). (B). Expression scores of IL-17, calculated from quantitative analysis of the histo-immunostaining using both staining intensity and the percentage of cells stained at a specific range of intensities (see Materials and Methods section). (C). Course of IL-17A, and (D) of IL-17F gene expression in the liver of mice during E. multilocularis infection (measured by q RT-PCR). a: ‘Parasitic lesion’ versus ‘Control’; b: ‘Periparasitic liver tissue’versus ‘Control’. *P<0.05; **P<0.01. ‘Control’, non-infected mice; ‘Parasitic lesion’: E. multilocularis metacestode and surrounding immune infiltrate; ‘Periparasitic liver tissue: liver parenchyma close to the E. multilocularis lesion, but excluding macroscopically visible liver tissue alterations. AU: arbitrary units.
Figure 5.
Course of Treg transcription factor and Treg-cytokine gene expression in the liver of mice during E. multilocularis infection (measured by q RT-PCR).
(A) Foxp3, (B) TGF-β1, (C) IL-10. a: ‘Parasitic lesion’ versus ‘Control’; b: ‘Periparasitic liver tissue’ versus ‘Control’. *P<0.05; **P<0.01. ‘Control’, non-infected mice; ‘Parasitic lesion’: E. multilocularis metacestode and surrounding immune infiltrate; ‘Periparasitic liver tissue: liver parenchyma close to the E. multilocularis lesion, but excluding macroscopically visible liver tissue alterations. AU: arbitrary units.
Table 1.
Gene ontology category: immune response and inflammatory response.
Table 2.
Correlations between mRNA of TGF-β1 and Foxp3, IL-10, IFN-γ and CXCL9.
Table 3.
Correlations between mRNA of Foxp3 and TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-1β and TNF-α.
Table 4.
Correlations between mRNA of IL-17 and CCL12, CCL17, IL-4, and TNF-α.
Table 5.
Correlations between mRNA of TNF-α and IL-12α, as well as IL-17A.
Figure 6.
Course of the changes in the morphology of the hepatic lesions (a), gene expression of innate immunity and proinflammtory cytokins (b), Th1 related cytokines and chemokines (c), Th1 related cytokines and chemokines (d), Th17 related cytokines (e), Foxp3 and Treg related cytokines (f) during the process of E. multilocularis-infection in mice.
Figure 7.
Schematic diagram summarizing the pathways of immune response involved in the host-parasite relationship in E. multilocularis infection.
Table 6.
Primers and cycling parameters of qRT-PCR.