Fig. 3

Induction of innate immune response by Echinaforce®. A) transcriptome gene expression changes IFN, innate immunity, chemokine, cytokine genes (logFC) B) transcription levels of MX1, IFITM1, STAT1, CXCL8(IL8) and CXCL10 genes at different time points, the bars represent the mean logFC values + − SD compared to the solvent control. *: P ≤ 0.05, ** P: ≤ 0.01, *** P: ≤ 0.001 and **** P: ≤ 0.0001. C) Blots showing protein levels of STAT1 and GAPDH (as reference protein) in 20 μg protein of cell lysates after 48 h stimulation with solvent (Ethanol) or Echinaforce®; Bars graph represents the density of each blot band for STAT-1 relative to the band density of GAPDH (reference protein). Band intensities were calculated using imageJ software. Statistical differences between solvent and Echinacea treated samples were assayed using a paired t-test where p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. (***) means p value < 0.01, (*): P ≤ 0.05, (**): P ≤ 0.01, (***): P ≤ 0.001 and (****): P ≤ 0.0001. D) Expression levels of IL8, CXCL10, IFNα2, IFNβ, IFNγ chemokines assayed by ELISA and MSD-U-Plex immunoassays in supernatants collected after Echinaforce® and solvent (Ethanol) stimulation. (***) means p value < 0.01, (*): P ≤ 0.05, (**): P ≤ 0.01, (***): P ≤ 0.001 and (****): P ≤ 0.0001, p-values after a paired t-test where p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant