Fig. 4

Effects of mitochondrial transplantation on the late immunosuppressive stage of sepsis. a Flow diagram of the experimental procedures used to assess the immunomodulatory effects of mitochondria on an ex vivo sepsis model in the immunosuppressive stage. b Splenocytes from rat spleens were stimulated with LPS, and then the supernatants were collected. The levels of the cytokines TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10 were measured after 5 and 24 h, respectively. Sham, n = 6 per group; sepsis and sepsis + MT, n = 10 to 13 per group. ***p < 0 .001 and **p < 0 .01 compared with the no-LPS (-) group. ^†p < 0.05 compared with the sepsis group. c Flow diagram of the experimental procedures used to assess the immunomodulatory effects of mitochondria on an in vitro sepsis model in the immunosuppressive stage. d Isolated monocytes from human PBMCs were stimulated with LPS and then treated with isolated mitochondria. The supernatants were collected, and TNF-α expression was measured (n = 4 per group). *p < 0.05 compared with the LPS Tol. group. MT mitochondria, PBMC peripheral blood mononuclear cell, LPS lipopolysaccharide, Tol. tolerance