Fig. 7

TLR8 protein is expressed at a higher level in female than in male immune cells. A Western blot analysis of TLR8 expression (upper panel) and total protein staining as control (lower panel). B Densitometric signals from the full-length (120-kDa) form of TLR8 were normalized to total protein and then to an internal standard PBMC lysate that was loaded in each gel for inter-gel data normalization. Results for male (n = 24) and female (n = 21) donors are shown, and data were pooled from four independent experiments. C Cytometrically determined frequency of CD14⁺ monocytes among PBMCs from the same donors. D Classical monocytes were defined as Lin⁻ CD14⁺ CD16⁻, intermediate Lin⁻ CD14⁺ CD16⁺ and non-classical Lin⁻ CD14⁻ CD16⁺ cells as shown in Additional file 2: Fig. S8A. TLR8 expression was measured by intracellular co-staining with anti-TLR8-PE and anti-TLR8-APC antibodies as shown in Additional file 2: Fig. S8A. D, E Anti-TLR8-PE staining intensity, gated on double TLR8-positive cells was calculated and expressed as ΔGMFI with background staining subtracted. D Representative histogram profiles from male and female donors are shown. E Data from individual male (n = 10) and female (n = 10) donors were pooled from two independent experiments. Statistical differences between groups were analyzed using the Mann and Whitney test; actual p-values are shown