Figure 2. Local effect. Two subcutaneous chambers were implanted into each of 12 Balb/c mice. Two wks after implantation, the mice were divided into 2 equal groups. In the first group, 1 of the 2 chambers received an injection of 150 µg of the IL-10 plasmid. In the second group, the vector was injected into 1 of the 2 chambers and served as the control. The second chamber in both groups of mice served as a local compartment for sampling the distant effect of the IL-10 gene. Two days later, all animals were challenged with an intra-chamber injection of P. gingivalis in both chambers. Two hrs post-challenge, the chamber exudates were extracted and the levels of IFN measured. Each bar of the graph represents the mean and standard errors from 6 mice. Each graph represents 1 of the 2 experiments. *Significantly different from control (p < 0.05).