Fig. 3.

Anti-inflammatory effects of telmisartan (Telm) in human monocytes involved inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation. Human monocytes were pre-incubated for 2 h with vehicle (DMSO) or 10 μmol/l Telm and subsequently exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (50 ng/ml). (a) Representative western blot image showing inhibitory effect of Telm on LPS-induced phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) in monocytes incubated for 30 min with LPS. Quantitative densitometric values are presented as percentage of DMSO-treated group, and as means ± SEM from at least three independent experiments. **P<0.01 vs. DMSO; ***P<0.001 vs. DMSO; ^##P<0.01 vs. LPS; ^###P<0.001 vs. LPS. (b) Telm dose dependently inhibited inhibitor of κB-α (IκB-α) mRNA expression induced by 2 h incubation with LPS, and prevented LPS-induced IκB-α protein degradation time dependently. IκB-α protein levels are presented as means ± SEM from three independent experiments. *P<0.05 vs. control (0 h); ^#P<0.05 vs. LPS with Telm group. Pictures are representative western blots. (c) Nuclear proteins extracted from human monocytes treated with LPS with or without Telm were used to measure NF-κB p65 protein expression by western blot. Representative western blot is shown. NF-κB p65 protein values are presented as means ± SEM from three independent experiments. ***P<0.001 vs. DMSO; ^###P<0.001 vs. LPS.