When we exposed human macrophages to a heat-killed OCV strain after pre-conditioning the cells with Bx sphingolipid-containing lipid fractions, we observed activation of several innate pathways characterized by genes typically expressed in bacterial infection and bacterial clearance64–71, and this was accompanied by expression of genes involved in inflammatory cell recruitment including leukocytes (via ICAM1), neutrophils (via CXCL1 and CXCL6), and dendritic cells and T cells (via C-C motif chemokine ligand 4 (CCL4))64,72–74. This evidence concerns the gene CXCL6 and bacterial infectious disease.