Fig. 1.

The effect of cadmium on COX-1 mRNA and protein expression in macrophages cultured with various cadmium solutions. a COX-1 mRNA expression following cadmium exposure without or with addition of COX-2 selective inhibitor, NS-398; b COX-1 protein expression (densitometric analysis of protein normalized to β-actin; c representative Western blot following cadmium exposure. Monocytes/macrophages were cultured with cadmium solutions for 48 h. After incubation, cells were harvested by scraping and mRNA was measured by using real-time PCR method (n = 4) and protein expression by using Western blotting method (n = 3). Asterisk, statistically significant as compared with 0 nM Cd—cells incubated in RPMI medium with 10 % FBS and with DMSO addition (Wilcoxon test). Number sign, statistically significant as compared with the experiment 0 nM Cd with NS-398 (Wilcoxon test)