FIG. 7.

Effect of ethanol on serum cytokine concentrations in wild-type and TLR4-mutant mice (C3H/HeJ) challenged with Escherichia coli. Mice were treated with vehicle (water) or ethanol (at the indicated dosages) 30 min before ip challenge with E. coli, and blood samples were taken 2 h after challenge. Values shown are means ± SEM for groups of five mice, and values significantly different from mice challenged with E. coli alone were determined by ANOVA with the Newman-Keuls post hoc. Statistical analysis was not performed for naive groups because these groups consisted of only two mice and were included only to confirm that the mice had not been inadvertently exposed to an inflammatory stimulus. Values significantly different from the E. coli-only group are indicated by *p < 0.05 or ***p < 0.001.