Figure 5.

Effect of DHMEQ on inflammatory mediator mRNA expression by RA FLS stimulated with TNF-α. (a) Five rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocyte (FLS) cell lines (#1–#5) obtained from different patients were stimulated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in the presence or absence of 10 μg/ml dehydroxymethylepoxyquinomicin (DHMEQ) and mRNA expression of CC chemokine ligand (CCL)2, CCL5, IL-6, IL-1β, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3, and vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) was examined by RT-PCR. (b) Densitometric analysis of these results. Intensity of each band was normalized relative to that of β-actin in the same lane, and the mean ± standard deviation of the five cell lines are shown. *P < 0.05 versus T. D, DHMEQ; T, TNF-α.