Figure 2.

Hepatic cells were protected from ZEA-induced cytokine production by FXN. FXN and/or ZEA were administered to HepG2 cells for 24 h. Western blotting was used to assess the expression of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-β1 proteins in (A–C). (D–F) IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, and VCAMsecretion into the culture media was quantified using a commercial ELISA kit. (G–I) mRNA level of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and ILβ1 by RT-PCR. Values are presented as the mean and standard error of the mean (SD). One-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post hoc test analysis was used for inter-group comparison. A significant difference is defined as a difference between the mean and standard deviation of three duplicates (n = 3), with * p < 0.05 control vs. ZEA and # p < 0.05 ZEA vs. pre-treated.