Figure 4.

HEK293-NFκB-Luc cells transfected with the cDNA of GFP were treated with the indicated drug concentrations of acetohexamide (A), nifedipin (N), proadifen (P), isoxsuprine (I) or 2.5 μℳ parthenolide (Parth.) as a specific inhibitor of NF-κB, or solvent (Co; DMSO) control. After stimulation with TNFα (2 ng ml⁻¹) for 4 h, luminescence of the firefly luciferase and fluorescence of GFP were quantified, and the luciferase signal was normalised by the GFP-derived fluorescence. Experiments were performed in triplicate. Asterisks indicate significance (one-way ANOVA and Dunnett's post test compared with TNFα control; P<0.05) and error bars indicate mean±s.d.