Fig. 2.

Effect of α-MSH on IL-6 and IL-8 secretion (a) and gene expression (b) in TNF-α-stimulated chondrocytes. Human primary chondrocytes were incubated for 4 h at 37 °C with 10⁻⁶M α-MSH and further cultured for 40 h in the presence or absence of 10 ng/mL TNF-α. IL-6 and IL-8 concentration in the supernatans (a) and gene expression (b) were then measured. Data from 4 separate experiments (± S.E.M.) are shown. *p < 0.0001 vs Medium; ° p < 0.05 vs TNF-α