Fig. 6.

Effects of antioxidants on the induction of inflammatory gene mRNA levels. Beas2B (a–c) and SAE (d–f) cells were first incubated with medium or medium containing 30 mM DMTU for 1 h or 15 mM n-acetylcysteine (NAC) adjusted to pH 7 or 0.5 μM 1-(2-Cyano-3,12,28-trioxooleana-1,9(11)-dien-28-yl)-1H-imidazole (CDDOIm) for 3 h and then treated with medium or 0.25 % dust extract (DE) for 3 h. Levels of mRNAs were determined by qRT-PCR. Levels of mRNAs in dust extract treated cells were arbitrarily considered as 100, and relative levels in cells treated with a combination of antioxidant and dust extract are shown. Data shown are means ± SE (n = 3–4) except in the case of TLR4 for Beas2B cells treated with a combination of CDDOIm and DE, in which case data is shown as mean ± SD (n = 2). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001, #P < 0.0001 compared with cells treated with dust extract alone