FIG. 4.

Effects of ERY or DEX on IL-8 production (A) or TNF-α (B) by unstimulated or LPS-stimulated human AM after the phagocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils. AM were treated with ERY at a concentration of 10 μg/ml, DEX at a concentration of 10⁻⁷ M or medium containing 0.1% DMSO (CTRL) for 72 h. AM were, then, incubated with LPS (10 ng/ml) or IMDM alone for 3 h, followed by exposure to apoptotic neutrophils or IMDM alone for 30 min. After removing unphagocytosed neutrophils, AM were cultured for 18 h. After incubation, the IL-8 or TNF-α levels in the cell culture supernatants were determined. Each bar denotes no phagocytosis without LPS (open bars), phagocytosis without LPS (slash bars), no phagocytosis with LPS (solid bars), and phagocytosis with LPS (gray bars), respectively. Each value represents the mean ± standard deviation (error bars) of three determinations. Statistical significance: *, P < 0.001 (versus LPS-stimulated AM without phagocytosis in CTRL treatment); **, P < 0.001 (versus LPS-stimulated AM with phagocytosis in CTRL treatment).