The AcT 5diff Cap Pierce Hematology

Analyzer (Beckman Coulter®, Suarlée, Belgium) was used to perform the full blood count quantifying numbers leucocytes (lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils and neutrophils); the proportion of each cell type was expressed as the percentage of total leucocytes. Thirty-nine participants provided blood samples for enumeration of leucocytes (uninfected n = 11, infected n = 11 and co-infected n = 17). Cercarial E/S material (0–3 h RP) was prepared as previously described [4, 8, 25] and used as a stimulant of the WB cultures. Alternatively, aliquots of total 0–3 h RP were treated with sodium metaperiodate (smp0–3 h CT99021 manufacturer RP), or ‘mock’-treated (m0–3 h RP), to disrupt glycan residues [8, 26]. WB cultures were stimulated with total 0–3 h RP (50 μg/mL), smp0–3 h RP (25 μg/mL), m0–3 h RP (25 μg/mL), the positive control ligand zymosan (50 μg/mL; Sigma-Aldrich, Dorset, UK) or culture medium without antigen (un-stimulated control). All cultures were conducted in the presence of 5 μg/mL polymyxin B (Sigma-Aldrich) to neutralize any potential endotoxin contamination in antigen preparations. Zymosan was chosen as a nonparasite antigen FK506 control as it is a heterogeneous mixture of protein–carbohydrate complexes and

thus is more comparable to cercarial E/S material than purified bacterial antigens (e.g. LPS). Cytokine production (IL-8, TNFα and IL-10) in the WB culture supernatants (diluted between 1:2 and 1:10) was measured by specific ELISA kits (TNFα and IL-8, Invitrogen; IL-10, R&D Systems Europe Ltd, Oxford, UK) according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. Results are given for each patient as mean cytokine production from triplicate wells in response to each stimulant minus the cytokine production for the corresponding WB sample cultured in the absence of stimulant

(i.e. medium only). Statistical analyses were conducted using the software package IBM Statistics, version 19. S. mansoni infection intensity (log(x + 1)-transformed epg) was compared by gender, age group (5–20 years (‘children’) and ≥20 years(‘adults)) and infection status (infected and co-infected) tested via anova using sequential Aurora Kinase sums of squares to account for gender and age before comparison between infection statuses. Age groups were selected according to epidemiological patterns of schistosome infection in the Diokhor Tack community as a whole [22, 23]. Log(x + 1)-transformed S. haematobium ep10 mL was compared by gender and age group via anova for the co-infected group. S. mansoni and S. haematobium infection intensities were log(x + 1)-transformed to meet parametric assumptions, and the homogeneity of error variances and normality of anova residuals was confirmed using the Levene’s test and Shapiro–Wilk test, respectively.