Fig. 1.

Effects of DEP-OC and washed DEP on mRNA expression. We evaluated the magnitude of mRNA expression for IL-1β (A), MIP-1α (B), Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) (C) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) (D) 4 hours after the intratracheal treatment by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The amplification cycles were 33 and 35 for IL-1β (A), 30 and 32 for MIP-1α (B), 30 and 32 for TLR2 (C), 28 and 30 for TLR4 (D). In each case, β-actin was amplified by the same protocol. For quantification, PCR bands in photographs of the gel were scanned by a densitometer linked to a computer analysis system. We used a published RT-PCR technique to measure relative differences in transcript levels after normalization against levels of the reference gene β-actin. The panel shows band density ratios of arbitrary density units for IL-1β (A), MIP-1α (B), TLR2 (C) and TLR4 (D) to β-actin. The bottom number shows 1) vehicle group, 2) DEP-OC group, 3) washed DEP group, 4) LPS group, 5) DEP-OC + LPS group, 6) washed DEP + LPS group. *p<0.01 vs vehicle group; ^†p<0.05 vs LPS group. Each ratio represents the mean ± SEM of at least 3 animals per group.