Figure 4.

The effect of dexamethasone depends on glucocorticoid receptor binding. Cells were incubated for 24 h with 25 ng ml⁻¹ TNF-α and 10 nM dexamethasone (A) or with 30 ng ml⁻¹ LPS and 10 nM dexamethasone (B) in the absence or presence of increasing concentrations of the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU-486 as indicated. In parallel, control incubations were done for 24 h with 25 ng ml⁻¹ TNF-α (A) or 30 ng ml⁻¹ LPS (B) (bars). DNA fragmentation was determined using the diphenylamine reaction. Values are means±s.e.mean of at least four individual experiments.