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

Figure 3

Human DC membrane marker expression after exposure to a range of G. vaginalis, L. reuteri, or C. albicans concentrations. (a, b) Differential expression of CD86 and HLA-DR, two membrane markers typically increasing during DC maturation. (c, d, e, f) Differential expression of DC-SIGN, TLR4, CD14, and MR CD206, four membrane markers typically decreasing during DC maturation. Data are means (+ SD). For every marker, the isotypic control values were subtracted from the MFI values. Imm-DCs: immature DCs, LPS-DCs: DCs matured by a 48 h exposure to 100 ng/mL E. coli LPS; G. vaginalis, L. reuteri, and C. albicans: 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 (), L. reuteri (), and C. albicans (). Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn comparison. , , as compared to the Imm-DCs.

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