Figure 3.

Effects of pharmacological inhibitors of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin (IL)-8 production in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). RA FLS were pretreated with prolinedithiocarbamate (PDTC; 1 µM, 10 µM) or parthenolide (1 µM, 10 µM) for 1 hour before exposure to poly (I:C). The concentrations of VEGF and IL-8 in the culture supernatant were measured by ELISA. The production of VEGF and IL-8 were down-regulated after administration of PDTC and parthenolide. The decreasement pattern was in proportion to concentration of the pharmacologic inhibitors of NK-κB, PDTC and parthenolide. VEGF and IL-8 production in response to Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) ligation involves NF-κB signaling pathway. ^ap < 0.05, ^bp < 0.01.