Fig. 4.

Inhibitory effects of WSR on chemokine expression in TNF-α/IFN-γ-stimulated HaCaT cells. Chemokines are important mediators of the immune response and inflammatory reactions. The exposure of keratinocytes to TNF-α/IFN-γ induces the abnormal expression of chemokines, leading to the infiltration of T cells or leukocytes into inflammatory lesions in the skin [20–22]. We examined the inhibitory effects of WSR on TNF-α/IFN-γ-induced pro-inflammatory chemokine production by HaCaT cells. We assessed the inhibitory effects of WSR on pro-inflammatory chemokine mRNA levels. The expression of TARC, RANTES, MDC, and IL-8 mRNA was then determined using real-time RT-PCR. As shown in Fig. 3, the levels of TARC, RANTES, MDC and IL-8 mRNA were enhanced in TNF-α/IFN-γ-stimulated cells. These increases were dose-dependently inhibited following WSR treatment. Data are presented as the means ± SEM of three experiments. Significance *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001