Table 1. Effects of long-chain unsaturated and saturated fatty acids on cytokine release from cultured astrocytes.

Primary astrocyte cultures were established as described in Methods, and exposed to either vehicle (BSA), or BSA-conjugated fatty acids (100 μM final concentration, see Methods). Release of TNFα, IL-6, and IL-1β was measured after 24 h. Data were compiled from 2 separate experiments, and are means and SEM of 10–30 dishes per group.

		TNFα (pg/ml)	IL-6 (pg/ml)	IL-1β (pg/ml)
BSA		102.6 ± 8.7	999.8 ± 80.5	246.1 ± 29.1
Unsaturated FA (0.1 mM)	Myristolate	32.0 ± 12.5	882.0 ± 242.6	26.2 ± 6.8
	Olate	121.1 ± 21.5	673.4 ± 154.8	197.1 ± 41.5
	Linolate	146.1 ± 21.4	687.5 ± 101.7	175.0 ± 25.0
	Arachidonate	140.3 ± 18.3	1142.0 ± 276.8	347.0 ± 192.9
Saturated FA (0.1 mM)	Laurate	521.3 ± 60.7***	6154.5 ± 724.9***	994.5 ± 153.1**
	Palmatate	849.0 ± 74.9***	3120.6 ± 173.0***	1229.0 ± 189.1***
	Sterate	430.7 ± 39.5***	3163.3 ± 394.4***	634.0 ± 118.6

^{** and ***}indicate significant (p<0.01, and p<0.001, respectively) increases in cytokine release from astrocytes treated with saturated fatty acids as compared to cells treated with BSA alone.