<p>Freshly isolated granulocytes from healthy blood donors (n = 9) were stimulated with IL-3 (2 ng/ml), anti-IgE (25 ng/ml) and Brugia antigen extracts (10 μg/ml) as control (dark bars) and then cultured in presence of 5% (v/v) of plasma (with a final concentration of 5 μg/ml of total proteins) of either non-endemic controls (NEC), endemic normal (EN), microfilaria positive (Mf+), microfilaria negative individuals (Mf-) or plasma of patients with chronic pathology manifestations (CP) (grey bars). Cells were then stained for CD63 and HLADR antigens expression. The proportion of activated granulocyte cells (CD63+/HLADR- cells) was determined after 18 hours of incubation (A). The release of histamine after 30 min (B), neutrophil elastase (C) and eosinophil cationic protein (D) after 18 hours was measured in culture supernatants. Bars represent means ± SEM. Graphs are representative of 3 independent experiments. Statistical comparison was based on Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA followed by Dunn post-hoc test. The indicated p-values refer to the significance level among all groups according to Kruskal-Wallis test. Asterisks indicate the level of differences after Dunn’s multiple comparisons test; *: p<0.05; **: p<0.01; ***: p<0.001.</p
