Figure 2

In vitro effect of Eucalyptus oil treatment on phagocytic activity of human MDMs. The phagocytic activity of treated and untreated MDMs was tested by adding to cultures 2 × 10⁷ beads/ml of fluorescent polystyrene beads as described in Methods. a-g, confocal microscopy images, showing the beads uptake (yellow-green hue) in control (a, b), LPS treated (c, d) and E Otreated MDMs (e-g); cells were counter-stained with 1 μg/ml propidium iodide (red hue). a, c, e, Original magnification: 40×; b, d, f, g, original magnification: 100×. h, j, Evaluation of phagocytic activity performed counting the number of phagocytic MDMs, reported as percent of phagocytic cells (solid bars), as well as the number of beads per cell (■). A minimum of 500 cells per sample were observed. Evaluation of percentage of phagocytic cells in controls maintained at 0°C, to block beads internalization, is also reported (yellow solid bars).