Fig. 2

Cytokine or chemokine production by young or aged PBMCs is altered by NP and LPS treatment. PBMCs from young (n = 6) or aged (n = 4) adults were incubated with either no adjuvants (media), polyanhydride nanoparticles (NP), Micelles (Mi), LPS, PMA/ionomycin (PMA), or cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) adjuvant for 24 h and analyzed for production of cytokines, chemokines, or growth factors. The results showed that a significant main effect of treatment was observed for IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, G-CSF and chemokine CCL3 (p < 0.05). A main effect of age was observed for IL-1α, IL-6, G-CSF, and CCL3 (p < 0.05), and a significant age by treatment interaction for IL-10 was found as indicated by *+ in the IL-10 graph (p < 0.05). Post-hoc analysis showed that LPS and NP induced greater IL-1α, IL-1 β, and IL-6 than media alone. LPS induced greater G-CSF and CCL3 than NP, and NP treatment resulted in greater G-CSF than media alone. Only LPS and PMA treatment resulted in greater CCL3 than media alone. For all significant age effects, cytokine concentration produced by young was greater than aged. The results for IL-10 showed an interaction between treatment and age, suggesting that the IL-10 response to LPS was greater in young compared to aged, as only LPS treatment was greater than media