Figure 3.

AhR antagonists and flavonoids affect DEHP- or MEHP-induced IL-33 expression. After pretreatment with an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) antagonist (CH223191; 1 or 10 μM) (A, B) or the flavonoids kaempferol (C, D) or apigenin (E, F) for 1 h, A549 cells were incubated with solvent control (control), DEHP, or MEHP (0.001-0.1 μM) for 3 h, and the level of IL-33 mRNA was measured. The cells were treated with the AhR antagonist (G, H) or the flavonoids (I, J) for 1 h and DEHP or MEHP (0.01 μM) for an additional 2 h and then stimulated with HDM extract (100 μg/ml) for an additional 24 (h) The IL-33 concentration in the supernatants was determined using ELISA. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. Data are shown as the mean ± SD of 4 independent experiments.