Fig.1. Inhibitory effect of IL-13 on the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines and profibrogentic cytokine specific mRNA levels by HMCs activated by LPS.

A: HMCs were unstimulated or stimulated with LPS (10 µg/mL) for 12 h in the presence or absence of a 30-min pretreatment with different concentrations of IL-13 (1-100 ng/mL). After these treatments, total RNA was extracted and subjected to ribonuclease protection assay analysis for mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-1β, MCP-1, IL-8 and TGF-β1. B: Densitometric quantitation of TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-1β, MCP-1, IL-8 and TGF-β1 mRNA was expressed in arbitrary units as the ratio of cytokines/GAPDH levels. Values represent mean±SD, n = 3 for each group (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01).