Fig. 2.

Effect of treatment with H. cordata on hBD2 and SLPI mRNA, and protein levels. VECs were treated with H. cordata water extract for 6 or 18 h. After treatment, the expression of hBD2 and SLPI mRNA was assessed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The expression of hBD2 and SLPI mRNA after treatment for 18 h (a, b) and 6 h (e, f) are shown as relative fold change compared to untreated control cells. Secretion of hBD2 and SLPI protein in VEC culture supernatants by ELISA, and mean ± SD values of secreted protein after treatment for 18 h are shown (c, d). In all graphs, results for duplicate experiments with three different donors for 18 h treatment and two different donors for 6 h treatment were normalized to untreated cells, and mean and standard deviations (error bars) are shown. *, P < 0.05 compared to untreated cells