Figure 5

Inflammatory responses to test samples injected into the peritoneal cavities of mice. Samples of vehicle only, X607, LFA, LFC, CNT_SW and CNT_LONG1, incubated for either 0 weeks or 10 weeks in Gambles solution, were injected into the peritoneal cavities of mice, and inflammatory responses were assessed at 24 h (panels on left) and 7 d (panels on right) post-injection. The inflammatory response was assayed by total (A) and differential (B) cell counts to identify infiltration of immune cells into the peritoneal cavity, total protein (C) to indicate increased permeability in the peritoneal cavity, IL-6 (D) as a measure of inflammatory cytokines, LDH (E) to indicate damage to cellular membranes, and the development of fibrotic plaques at 7 d (G). Note that the scales of the vertical axes vary. Differences between mice treated with the same fibre samples incubated for 0 weeks or 10 weeks were assessed by unpaired t-tests, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05 (denoted by an asterisk). Differences between mice treated with fibres that had been incubated for 0 weeks or 10 weeks compared to mice treated with vehicle only were assessed by one-way ANOVA with Tukey's Multiple Comparison post-test, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05 (denoted by an unshaded triangle). For the differential cell counts, statistically significant differences between the numbers of macrophages (MAC) and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) in treated mice compared to control mice are denoted by an unshaded triangle or a black square, respectively.