Figure 1.

Production of PGE₂ by PBMC in response to IL-1β or IL-18. PBMC were cultured at 5 × 10⁶ cells/ml in 1 ml of RPMI containing IL-12 (5 ng/ml) and were incubated for 48 hr in the presence or absence of IL-1β (100 ng/ml) or IL-18 (5 nM). The data represent the fold-change ±SEM over the level of spontaneous PGE₂ production in unstimulated cells (set at 1). n = 3 donors (*, P < 0.01). Inset depicts the RT-PCR-amplified mRNA of COX-2 and GAPDH from PBMC stimulated with IL-1β (100 ng/ml) or IL-18 (5 nM) and rotated at 7 rpm (Rollerdrum, New Brunswick Scientific) for 6 hr at 37°C. RT-PCR data represent one of three similar experiments.