Figure 1.

Cytokines are released from neurons challenged with cell stretch or P2X7R stimulation. (A) Neuronal stretching with a 4.1% strain triggered the release of numerous cytokines into the extracellular bath. Cytokines that were increased significantly are shown in green (n = 4, *p < 0.05, paired t-test). (B) Neuronal stretch did not increase lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in the bath (NS, Not significant; p = 0.55, n = 4). (C) Exposure of neurons to P2X7R agonist BzATP (50 μM) for 30 min increased the level of extracellular cytokines. Cytokines that were increased significantly are shown in blue (n = 4, *p < 0.05, paired t-test). (D) BzATP did not increase LDH levels in the bath (p = 0.12, n = 4). (E) Comparison of the increase in cytokine secretion triggered by cell stretch to the increase after BzATP stimulation (For panel E, *p < 0.05 Stretch, **p < 0.05 BzATP, ^#p < 0.05). The increase in cytokine release induced by stretch and BzATP displayed a relatively linear relationship, r² = 0.52.