Research Article

Macrophage P2X7 Receptor Function Is Reduced during Schistosomiasis: Putative Role of TGF-β1

Figure 6

Confocal microscopy analysis of P2X7 receptor expression on the cell surface of macrophages. Cells were labelled with antibodies recognizing P2X7 receptors (green) and F4/80+ (red) as well as with DAPI (blue). (a) Representative images showing macrophages from uninfected (left column), S. mansoni-infected (middle column), and TGF-β1-treated (right column; 5 ng/mL, for 24 h) mice. The bottom row shows orthogonal slices of the representative labelled cells, with red arrows marking P2X7 expression on the plasma membrane. (b) Quantitative analysis of confocal microscopy data. The mean fluorescence intensity, showing cell surface P2X7 receptor expression in peritoneal macrophages from uninfected mice (white bar), S. mansoni-infected (black bar), and TGF-β1-treated (hatched bar; 5 ng/mL, for 24 h) mice, was obtained from pixels intensity using ImageJ software (see methods). Inset: negative controls (macrophages incubated with secondary antibodies only). replicates from 3 animals for each condition ( versus control, TGF-β1 versus infected group; one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Newman-Keuls test).
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