Figure 2.

Effects of the fluorinated benzofuran and dihydrobenzofuran on the secretion of PGE₂, IL-6, CCL2, and NO. Macrophages were treated with only 10 µM because of toxicity at higher concentrations for compounds 1, 7, and 9, and 50 µM for the other compounds, prior to the addition of 10 ng/mL LPS for 24 h. The inflammatory mediators measured in the secreted milieu and results were expressed as percentage of LPS, and the corresponding IC₅₀ fitting curves for compounds 2, 3, 5, 6, or 8 using six increasing concentrations were determined. (A) Secreted PGE₂; (B) IL-6; (C) CCL2; and (D) NO formation. Levels of measured mediators and cytokines were for the basal and LPS-treated macrophages, as follows: PGE₂: 19.9 ± 1.5 and 146 ± 27.2 pg/mL; IL-6: undetermined (for basal) and 19.9 ± 4.3 ng/mL; CCL2: 5.2 ± 0.4 and 54.7 ± 8.1 ng/mL; NO derivatives: 1.3 ± 0.1 µM and 31.4 ± 4.9 µM. Data are represented as mean of percentage of LPS ± SEM of four experiments performed in triplicates; * p < 0.05 versus LPS (one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test).