Figure 2. Nicotinic effects on inflammatory cytokine production by LPS-stimulated U937 cells.
A, B. Differentiated U937 cells, 1×106 cells/well, were incubated for 16 h in a humid, 5% CO2 incubator with 200 ng/ml LPS in the absence or presence of 1 μM Epi ± 50 μM Mec or 1 μM αBtx, after which the expression of the genes encoding TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-18 at the mRNA and protein levels was measured by qPCR (A) and ICW (B), respectively, as detailed in Materials and Methods. Asterisk = p<0.05 compared to LPS given alone; pound sign = p<0.05 compared to Epi given alone.
C. The dose-dependent inhibition of the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-18 proteins in differentiated U937 cells stimulated with LPS in the presence of increasing concentrations of Epi.
The results are expressed as fold of control determined in control PMA-differentiated U937 cells, and taken as 1.
