Table 6.

Basal and ex vivo expression of phospho-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) in tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-18-activated CD3⁺/CD4⁺ T helper cells and monocytes in various groups.

Cell type	Group	Medium control (MFI/104 leucocytes)	TNF-α activation (MFI/104 leucocytes)	% change TNF-α activation	IL-18 activation (MFI/104 leucocytes)	IL-18 % change activation
Th cells	CTL	106 (80·4–130)	124 (83·7–143)	6·9 (1·04–21·5)	112 (74·9–130)	−0·36 (−9·69–14·0)
	NDN	47·5 (31·1–87·0)††	56·8 (42·4–98·1)	13·7 (−3·33–43·0)	147 (83·8–176)*	22·4 (21·8–38·8)†††
	DN	69·0 (34·2–115)	72·4 (36·0–142)	12·3 (−3·90–20·8)	99·3 (44·8–146)**	5·67 (−3·15–18·2)‡‡‡
	CTL	198 (129–273)	324 (199–408)*	46·3 (17·0–67·5)	230 (101–290)	0·42 (−11·2–10·6)
Monocytes	NDN	161 (122–235)	327 (150–442)**	93·4 (34·6–198)†	281 (218–364)*	15·4 (0·11–33·3)†
	DN	219 (133–324)	373 (236–428)***	41·6 (20·8–80·3)‡‡	245 (156–343)	2·01 (−20·6–17·6)‡‡‡

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were incubated with phosphate-buffered saline, TNF-α (20 ng/ml) or IL-18 (20 ng/ml) for 15 min. Results of phospho-p38 MAPK were expressed as median (interquartile range). The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to access the differences of basal expression among groups

^††P < 0·01), expression between TNF-α treated or IL-18-treated and medium control groups

^*P < 0·05

^**P < 0·01

^***P < 0·001), percentage change between control (CTL) and patient groups

^†(P < 0·05

^†††P < 0·001) and percentage change between NDN and DN groups

^††P < 0·01

^‡‡‡P < 0·001).