Figure 4.
Effects of prenatal dexamethasone (DEX) treatment on tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) production of cultured splenocytes. Isolated splenocytes from the vehicle and DEX groups at (a) day 7 or (b) day 120 were suspended to 2 × 106/ml in 24-well plates then treated with 5 μg/ml of concanavalin A (Con A). The culture supernatants were collected at 72 hr and then indicated for TNF-α detection with ELISA. The scales of the y-axes were different between day 7 and day 120. (c) The cell pellets were collected for TNF-α mRNA expression with RT-PCR. The data shown are from six replicated experiments. *vehicle vs DEX, P < 0·05.