Differential expression of WNT ligands and inflammatory cytokines in the mouse model of acute systemic endotoxemia. Mice were injected intravenously with LPS (2 mg/kg) and gene expression determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in spleen tissue at the indicated time points. Transient elevation of mRNA expression for (A) inflammatory cytokines and (B) WNT ligands; (D) transient downregulation of Wnt6 mRNA expression. Relative gene expression is depicted for individual mice analyzed cumulatively in 3 independent experiments; mean ± standard error of the mean are indicated. Groups were compared by 1-way ANOVA with Sidak correction for multiple comparisons. *P < .05, **P < .01, n.s. not significant. (C) Positive correlation of WNT ligand and inflammatory cytokine expression in tissue of mice 1.5 h after LPS challenge. Proximity of the correlation coefficients to 1 (direct correlation) and −1 (inverse correlation) is highlighted according to the depicted heat map scale. Correlation coefficients for correlations that meet statistical significance (P < .05) are indicated. Expression of the 10 WNT genes not depicted in (C) was below the detection limit of the assay.