Fig. 3.

Effects of PD98059, a MEK inhibitor, and PDTC, an inhibitor of NF-κB activation, on production of TNF-α by human monocytes (THP-1) stimulated by LPS. After pretreatment with 10 µM PD98059 or 100 µM PDTC, THP-1 cells were stimulated with LPS (10 ng/ml) for 3 h. Concentration of TNF-α in cell culture supernatant was measured by ELISA. Each column represents the mean ± SD of n = 3 independent observations in three separate cell culture plates. **; p<0.01 compared with control. ^##; p<0.01 compared with LPS-stimulated vehicle-treated cells.