Fig. 5.

Induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene expression in RAW 264.7 murine macrophages stimulated in the presence of benznidazole (BZL). Cells were stimulated in the absence or presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 100 ng/ml) and/or IFN-γ (500 U/ml), with or without BZL. Total RNA of cells stimulated for 6 h was reverse-transcribed and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) co-amplification was performed for iNOS and the β-actin gene, as described in Materials and Methods. The expression levels for the iNOS transcript were evaluated after ethidium bromide staining by densitometric scanning using a video camera and analysed by using Image 1.44 b11 MacIntosh software. Lanes 1 and 5, untreated cells; lanes 2 and 6, IFN-γ-treated cells; lanes 3 and 7, LPS-treated cells; lanes 4 and 8, LPS + IFN-γ-treated cells. Cells were untreated (lanes 1–4) or treated with 1 mm BZL (lanes 5–8).