Assessment of the Immune Responses Induced in Cattle after Inoculation of a Mycobacterium bovis Strain Deleted in Two mce2 Genes

Figure 4

Relative cytokine gene expression. Gene expression was measured in PBMCs from animals infected with either MbΔmce2 (𝑛=4, white bars) or NCTC 10772 (𝑛=3, gray bars) stimulated with PPDB at 15 and 90 dpi. Relative gene expression was calculated using the 2-ΔΔCt method with E correction, using pol II and gadph mRNA expression as reference genes and the preimmune condition as the calibrator. Data were analyzed using a two-tailed unpaired 𝑡-test (**𝑃<0.01, ^∗∗∗𝑃<0.001). The bars indicate the average ratios of infected animals/uninfected animals ± SEM.