Fig 7. In vitro mPGES-1 blockade impairs nicotine’s limiting effects on TNFα production by LPS activated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

Human PBMC cultures were freshly prepared from healthy blood donors using ficoll density gradient separation. (a) TNFα levels measured by ELISA in culture supernatants after treatment with endotoxin, LPS (100ng/ml) for 6, 14 and 20 hours respectively. Untreated cells served as control. TNFα levels in the culture supernatants were measured by ELISA (*p>0.05, **p<0.01; control versus LPS; One-way ANOVA, *p>0.05; LPS versus LPS+mPGES-1 inhibitor; One-way ANOVA). (b) TNFα levels measured by ELISA in culture supernatants after treatment with nicotine (100 μM) for 14 hours. (*p>0.05; LPS versus LPS+ Nicotine; One-way ANOVA, **p>0.05; LPS+ Nicotine versus LPS+Nicotine+mPGES-1 inhibitor; One-way ANOVA). Each sample was run as duplicates during ELISA and values are represented as mean ±SEM from (a) 3 and (b) 4 independent experiments.