IFNG and bacterial infectious disease: Since higher IFN-γ production in naïve BALB/c splenocytes upon live bacterial infection in vitro could not have resulted from increased infiltration of cell-types from elsewhere, we tested the possibility that naïve BALB/c splenocytes produce more IFN-γ in response to live bacteria due to a poorer ability to control bacterial replication, leading to a higher bacterial load.