In this study, we found that macrophages infected with O. tsutsugamushi massively produce IL-10 and wild type BMDMs (~7.0 ng/ml) secrete 2.7 times more IL-10 compared to that of mutant BMDMs lacking IFNAR (~2.6 ng/ml) at 36 h after infection, whereas the levels of IL-10 from BMDCs were generally <10 pg/ml in wild type and IFNAR KO cells (Figure 6A). This evidence concerns the gene IFNAR1 and infection.