Figure 7.

The effect of exogenous IL-1β on release of IL-8 (A) and FGF-2 (B) and on number of pneumocytes (C). The contact co-cultures (M+P) were exposed to silica (160 μg/cm²) for 43 h. IL-1β (75 pg/ml) was added to the M+P co-culture 30 min before silica exposure. Data represent means ± SE for n = 3 – 4 separate experiments. *P < 0.05 shows statistical differences of silica-exposed co-cultures vs. un-exposed controls. ^#P < 0.05 shows statistical differences of co-cultures exposed to silica vs. co-cultures given IL-1β before silica exposure. Arrows (A, B) indicate the direction of changes by exogenous IL-1β. Data for IL-8 and number of pneumocytes were log-transformed before performing ANOVA.