Figure 2.

Upregulation of proinflammatory molecules in BEAS-2B cells. The levels of mRNAs that encode CCL5, CXCL10, CXCL11, CXCL16, STAT1, and STAT2 were monitored using semi-quantitative RT-PCR. A gel showing the results from one representative experiment is shown on the left. The relative level was determined by normalization against the level of mRNA encoding GAPDH, using IMageJ software. The average, with standard deviation, was derived from three independent experiments. * p <0.05; ** p <0.01.