Fig. 2.

A: electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showing nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in nuclear extracts from mononuclear cells (MNC). A supershift (SS) of the NF-κB band occurred during incubation with specific antibodies against NF-κB subunits but not during incubation with nonspecific (NS) IgG. Neutralization of the NF-κB band occurred during incubation with a specific cold competitor (SPC) of the oligonucleotide consensus sequence but not during incubation with a nonspecific cold competitor (NSC). B: representative EMSA bands from the 2 study groups showing the quantity of NF-κB in nuclear extracts from MNC in samples collected in the fasting state (0) and 2 h post-glucose ingestion (2), before and after treatment with DHEA or placebo. The samples used to quantify NF-κB from both study groups were run on the same gel. C: densitometric quantitative analysis comparing the change from baseline (%) in MNC-derived activated NF-κB between the 2 study groups for fasting samples before and after (before vs. after, 0) DHEA or placebo administration (left) and for fasting and 2 h post-glucose ingestion samples for each oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT; before, 0 vs. 2; after, 0 vs. 2) as a measurement of the response to glucose challenge before and after DHEA or placebo administration (right). After DHEA administration, the %change in activated NF-κB was significantly greater compared with placebo in the fasting state (P < 0.04) and in response to glucose ingestion (P < 0.005).