Slight Pro-Inflammatory Immunomodulation Properties of Dendritic Cells by Gardnerella vaginalis: The “Invisible Man” of Bacterial Vaginosis?

Figure 4

DC viability after 48 h of culture with G. vaginalis. Histogram shows the dead cell percentage, calculated from SSC/FSC diagram and live/dead marker. LPS induced a significant increase in DC mortality compared to immature DCs alone in the medium. Low and high concentrations of G. vaginalis did not induce any increase in DC mortality, even at a MOI of 100. Data are means (+ SD) from 6 individual experiments. Imm-DCs: immature DCs, LPS-DCs: DCs matured by a 48 h exposure to 100 ng/mL E. coli LPS; G. vaginalis. DCs matured after a 48 h incubation at different concentrations (10³ to 10⁷ CFU/mL, i.e., MOI = 0.01 to 100) of G. vaginalis. Friedman’s test with Nemenyi’s comparison .