Figure 7. Exploring the mode of corticosteroid action in enhancing the transcriptional synthesis of IkBa which is illustrated by the solid arrow.

An i.v. injection of the corticosteroid drug administered concomitantly with endotoxin (t_in = 0 hr) suffices to reverse (prevent) the lethal effect of a high dose of endotoxin. Solid lines (-) correspond to the inflammatory resolution due to the corticosteroid infusion at t = 0 hr while dashed lines (--) simulate the progression of inflammation in response to a high concentration of LPS (i.e. LPS(t = 0 hr) = 4).