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

Figure 6

Modulation of PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation after exposure to a range of G. vaginalis concentrations.As expected, 2 µg/mL PHA induced a strong proliferation of the lymphocyte control cells, reaching on average about 20 000 cpm. Compared to the PHA-stimulated control cells, a significant slight increase in lymphocyte proliferation was observed with the G. vaginalis-treated cells at a high dose. Data are means (+ SD) of measures from 13 independent experiments. PBMC: PBMCs cultured for 72 h without any effector; PHA control: PBMCs only exposed to PHA (2 µg/mL) for 72 h; G. vaginalis: PBMCs exposed for 72 h to PHA (2 µg/mL) in the presence of 10³ to 10⁷ CFU/mL of G. vaginalis. Two-way ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni test (). A, B, C, and D: means with different superscript letters are significantly different from each other.