Fig. 5

Cytokine production by young or aged PBMCs is differentially altered by NP, CDN, LPS or PMA/ionomycin 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. A significant main effect of treatment was found for IFN-α, IL-7, IL-12p40 and IL-12p70 (p < 0.05), a main effect of age for all cytokines (p < 0.05), and a treatment by age interaction for IL-12p70, IL-7 (p < 0.05); and for IFN-α, a trend to interaction (p = 0.06). Due to interaction effects, post-hoc analyses identified treatment differences by age. For IFN-α, only CDN treatment was greater than media in aged (*+, p < 0.05), but CDN did not significantly increase IFN-α in young. Treatment with PMA, LPS, and NP increased IFN-α in young only (p < 0.05). For IL-12p70, only CDN increased IL-12p70 in aged (*+, p < 0.05). In young PMA treatment increased IL-12p70 (p < 0.05), with a similar trend for LPS (p = 0.06) and NP (p = 0.09). IL-7 was increased by NP treatment in aged only (*+, p < 0.05), but IL-7 was increased in young by PMA (p < 0.05) and trend for LPS (p = 0.058)