Figure 10. Stress preconditioning with heat attenuates cytokine-mediated activation of NF-κB in A549 (A) or primary cultures of rat ATII cell monolayers (B).

Cells were transiently transfected with luciferase reporter plasmid containing three tandem NF-κB motifs. Control cells were maintained in basal growth media. Cytokine-treated cells were exposed to a mixture of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IFN-γ) for 24 h at a concentration of 10 ng ml⁻¹. A group of cells were stress preconditioned with heat 12 h before exposure to pro-inflammatory cytokines. Luciferase activity was corrected for total cellular protein and reported as fold-induction over the control cells (cells that were transfected and treated with cytokine vehicle alone). Data represent the means ± s.e.m. of four separate experiments with each condition carried out in triplicate; *P < 0.05 from control cells not treated with cytokine; ** P < 0.05 from cytokine-treated cells that were not stress preconditioned with heat.