Erythropoietin Exacerbates Inflammation and Increases the Mortality of Histoplasma capsulatum-Infected Mice

Figure 5

EPO pretreatment increases proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in lungs from Hc-infected mice. Lungs were removed from uninfected mice treated with 45 U EPO (EPO) or from untreated (Hc) or EPO pretreated (EPO + Hc) mice infected with Hc (5 × 10⁵ yeasts/100 μL/mouse). Lungs were removed 14 days after infection and homogenized, and the concentrations of IFN-γ (a), IL-6 (b), MIP-1α (c), and MCP-1 (d) were assessed in the supernatants using ELISA. Means ± SEM values from one representative experiment of two independent experiments are shown (–6). Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test was used and the differences were considered significant when . ^#Versus Hc; uninfected and EPO-untreated (dashed line); ^&versus uninfected and EPO-treated mice.

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