Figure 1.
Effects of stress and B. hominis infection on weight gain.
Mean weight gain is compared with their initial weight at week 1. Data shown is in mean ± SD. WK = week.
Figure 2.
Cyst count in Blasto and Blasto-Stressed groups according to study duration.
Data shown is total number of cysts recovered from 3 stool pellets from each rat (n = 5). Results are expressed as mean ± SD. *P<0.05 is the comparison done against Blasto group.
Figure 3.
Levels of serum a) IgG, b) IgE, and c) IgM in the study groups according to study duration.
Data is given in mean ± SD. *P<0.05 is the comparison done against Normal group using Student's t-test. aP<0.05 is the significant comparison done against Stressed group using One-way ANOVA analysis.
Figure 4.
Blood differential count: a) neutrophil, b) lymphocyte, c) monocyte and d) eosinophil in the respective group of rats according to study duration.
Data is given in mean ± SD. *P<0.05 is the comparison done against Normal group by Student's t-test. aP<0.05 and bP<0.05 is the comparison done against Stressed and Blasto group respectively using One-way ANOVA analysis.
Figure 5.
Proliferation of PBMCs introduced with 1 µg/ml of Blasto-Ag according to study duration.
PHA, mitogen (20 µg/ml) was used as positive control. Values are given in mean ± SD. Values are normalized against sample blank where Blasto-Ag was substituted with sterile Jones medium (without any supplements). *P<0.05 is the comparison done against Normal group by Student's t-test. aP<0.05 and bP<0.05 is the comparison done against Stressed and Blasto group respectively using One-way ANOVA analysis.
Figure 6.
Levels of serum oxidative indices: a) AOPP, b) LHP, c) FRAP and d) GPx in the study groups according to study duration.
Data is given in mean ± SD. *P<0.05 is the comparison done against Normal by Student's t-test. aP<0.05 and bP<0.05 is the comparison done against Stressed and Blasto group respectively using One-way ANOVA analysis.
Table 1.
Correlation analysis of AOPP, LHP, FRAP and GPx levels in the study groups.
Figure 7.
Illustration on the a) effects of stress on various parameters and b) overview of results obtained from this study.
Text box shaded in a) yellow represents general facts and hypothesis, b) blue represents the parameters used, c) grey represents observations obtained, and d) pink represents implications of the current study.