Liver macrophage-associated inflammation correlates with SIV burden and is substantially reduced following cART
Fig 9
Liver macrophage number correlates with inflammatory and fibrosis mediators.
A-C) Quantitative PCR was used to evaluate the hepatic expression of macrophage-associated chemokines and cytokines using the comparative threshold method. Data are graphed as the Log2 transformed mean ± SEM with adult (open symbols) and infant (closed symbols) macaques are denoted in each graph. Statistical significance was determined by Mann Whitney T tests. Correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship of cytokine/chemokine expression with liver macrophage number. Data displaying normal distribution were analyzed by Pearson correlation with data not passing normality were assessed by Spearman correlation. A significant increase in TNFα (A), CCL3 (B), and TGFβ (C) was observed in livers of SIV-infected macaques that positively correlated with liver macrophage number in the uninfected (gray points) and SIV-infected (purple points) macaques. D) Human monocyte-derived macrophages were stimulated with poly I:C or ssRNA40 at 0.2 and 2 ug/mL for 12 hours in duplicate. Relative expression of TNFα, CCL3 and TGFβ was assessed by qRT-PCR comparing poly I:C and ssRNA40 stimulated cells to control (unstimulated) monocyte-derived macrophages. Data are graphed as the mean fold change in expression ± SEM. Statistical significance was determined using a Mann Whitney T tests comparing technical replicates of each condition to unstimulated cells with p ≤ 0.05 denoted as *.