Fig. 4.

Effect of acteoside treatment on cytokine secretion in acute (a) and chronic (b) colitis. Mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) were stimulated with anti-CD3 antibody in the presence of interleukin (IL)-2. After incubation for 24 h cytokine levels in supernatants were analysed by beadlyte cytokine detection system, as described in Materials and methods. Cytokine secretion of stimulated MLN from mice with acute dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis treated with acteoside (600 µg per day, grey bars) or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (no acteoside, black bars) per mouse over 5 days (a). The data presented are the mean value of four independent experiments with five mice per group each. Interferon (IFN)-γ secretion of stimulated MLN from mice with chronic DSS-induced colitis treated with acteoside (600 or 120 µg per day) or without acteoside per mouse over 5 days. Box indicates 25th and 75th percentiles and median. Whiskers indicates 90th and 10th percentiles (b). The data presented are the mean value of two independent experiments with seven mice per group. Whiskers were not computed. *Significantly different from cytokine secretion of the no-acteoside group.