Table 1. Activated microglial cells release TNFα in culture supernatant.

Inducer	Concentration	TNFα (pg/ml)° Without PMB*	TNFα (pg/ml)° with PMB*(10 µg/ml)
None		<10	ND
Desulfated Heparin	5 µg/ml	<10	ND
Bovine HS	5 µg/ml	<10	ND
Normal GAG	5 µg/ml	<10	ND
LPS	0.5 µg/ml	125±12#	<10
LPS	1 µg/ml	581±52	<10
LPS	5 µg/ml	860±39	<10
HS2	0.5 µg/ml	<10	<10
HS2	1 µg/ml	12±1	12±1
HS2	5 µg/ml	26±5	28±5
HS1	5 µg/ml	59±7	45±6

^°TNFα was detected in culture supernatants by ELISA (see materials and methods)

^*PMB: polymyxin B, a drug that competes with endotoxin binding to TLR4. Absence of inhibition in the presence of PMB suggests that microglial activation was not induced by endotoxins.

^#Values are means±SEM from 3 experiments, in which 3 microglial cell cultures were established from different mice.