Figure 1. Dex suppresses IL-33-induced cytokine production in mouse BMMCs.

BMMCs were treated with 2 µM (A) or the indicated concentrations (B) of Dex at the indicated times in (A) or simultaneously with IL-33 (50 ng/ml) in (B). Cells were stimulated with IL-33 for 6 h, and supernatants were analyzed by ELISA. Dotted line: background cytokine production without activation. (C) BMMCs were treated with 1 µM Dex as in (B) and assessed for TNF production by intracellular staining and flow cytometry. Dot plots are representative of 3 BMMC populations. Numbers indicate percentage of cells positive for TNF. Quantification of vehicle- or Dex-treated cells (bottom). (D) RT-qPCR of cytokine mRNAs isolated from BMMCs 2 h after treatment with 1 µM Dex as in (B). Fold induction was calculated by normalizing treatment groups to the vehicle-treated, unactivated group. Data shown are representative of 3 (A–C) or an average of 2 (D) independent experiments performed in triplicate. Unpaired Student t tests were performed to compare the vehicle-treated cells to the drug-treated cells at each time point in (A). Dunnett’s multiple-comparison test was performed to compare each group treated with a particular dose of the drug with the control group that was treated only with the vehicle in (B). Tukey’s multiple-comparison test was used to calculate the P-values in (D) . *P < 0.05; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001.