Figure 2.

Analysis of circulating cytokines showed that PCB 126 increases systemic inflammation at 10 weeks in mice fed a high-cholesterol diet. Male Ldlr–/– mice were fed a low fat, 0.15% cholesterol diet and exposed to 1 µmol/kg PCB 126 at weeks 2 and 4. PCB exposure increased plasma levels of G-CSF, IFNγ, IL-1β, IL-12 (p70), and IL-13 compared with vehicle safflower oil control (magpix technology; p < .05). IL-10, IFNγ-IP-10, and TNFα were not significantly increased in PCB administered mice (p = .10). The box and whisker plots show individual data points and also the median, mean, and error bars for each group. Statistical significance was determined by Student’s t-test or Mann-Whitney rank sum test depending on normality and variance distributions.