Fig. 4.

Inflammatory activation increased cytokine production in human cardiac fibroblasts. Concentrations of cytokines were measured with ELISA in culture supernatants of unstimulated and LPS stimulated human cardiac fibroblasts, compared with total amounts of cellular protein. There were significantly higher levels of the following: A) IFN-γ, B) IL-1β, C) IL-2, E) IL-6, F) IL-8, and J) TNF-α in medium from LPS stimulated cells, compared with that from unstimulated control cells. No significant changes were observed for: D) IL–4 G) IL-10, H) IL-12 p70 or I) IL-13. For statistical analysis, a paired Student’s t-test was used to compare unstimulated and LPS stimulated cells (n = 3), *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.