Fig. 4

Amyloid induction by blood infusion is not mediated by acute systemic inflammation. The development of a systemic inflammatory response to blood infusions was measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) (a) and plasma (b) from animals subjected to the different treatments (n = 4). Various pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα, MIP-1α, IFN-γ, IL-10 and MCP-1) were measured 1.5 h or 7 days after blood administration to evaluate acute and chronic inflammatory changes. Release of these cytokines from PBMC was measured after stimulation with lipopolysaccharide, as described in “Materials and methods” section. In PBMC, IL-10 and MCP-1 were not detectable above the background and in plasma, only IL-6 was detectable above the background levels. Statistical analyses showed that blood administration produced a significant activation of these cytokines; however no differences were observed between WT and transgenic blood