Figure 7.

Effects of anaphylatoxins on cytokine and growth factor secretion by ARPE-19 cells and human monocyctes. (A) Secretion of interleukin-8 (IL-8), vascular endothelial growth-factor-A (VEGF-A), and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) by ARPE-19 cells stimulated with C3a, C5a, or both was examined, relative to the values measured in the absence of anaphylatoxins (control; control was arbitrarily set as 1). Co-application of LY294002 (50 µM) with the different anaphylatoxins (C3a: 260 nM; C5a: 52 nM, or combined C3a/C5a: 260/52 nM) was used to test whether constitutive or induced secretion required PI3-kinase activation. (B) Secretion of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) was tested in human monocytes stimulated with C3a (3.3 µM), C5a (480 nM), or both when compared with buffer alone. Level of cytokine induction by C5a was arbitrarily set as 1. Data are expressed as mean values ± SD; n = 3; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.005 [(A) Mann–Whitney U test, (B) Student’s t-test].