Fig. 4.

Quantitation of proinflammatory cytokine proteins in mouse primary peritoneal macrophages. (A) macrophages were treated with α-BTX at 1 μg/ml for 30 minutes and then 5 μM nicotine for 10 minutes, followed by stimulation with poly(I:C) at 20 μg/ml for 12 hours. The production of IL-6 and TNF-α was measured by ELISA. (B) macrophages were treated with PBS (control), 5 μM nicotine, or α-BTX at 1 μg/ml for 12 hours; and the amounts of IL-6 and TNF-α protein were measured by ELISA. Data are shown as the mean ± S.E.M. from three independent experiments performed under identical conditions (**P < 0.01).