Fig. (2).

The levels of stimulated activation of monocytes/macrophages from blood of healthy subjects (n = 19), atherosclerotic patients (n = 22), and breast cancer patients (n = 18).

Left panel, production of TNFα by monocytes/macrophages stimulated by combination of IFNg and LPS; right panel, production of CCL18 by monocytes/macrophages stimulated by IL-4.

Monocytes were isolated from the whole blood of patients with breast cancer at the baseline and after 2 weeks of chemotherapy by affinity magnetic separation on CD14-antibody-conjugated ferromagnetic nanobeads using MagCellect Human CD14+ Cell Isolation Kit (R&D Systems, USA), and seeded in primary cutlure. The cells were stimulated by interferon gamma (100 ng/mL) and LPS (10 ng/mL) or interleukin-4 (10 ng/mL), and after 72 h incubation the concentrations of TNFα or CCL 18 were measured in cultural medium by ELISA using Human TNF-α DuoSet or Human CCL18/PARC DuoSet (both, R&D Systems, USA), respectively.