Figure 2.
Anti-inflammatory effects of combination treatment on human NP cells. Panel shows histograms representing expression of (a,b) MMP-13 or (c,d) Cox-2 mRNA levels in human degenerative IVD - NP cells (H1–H8) treated with (a and c) rhIL-1β alone; (b and d) rhIL-1β + rhTNFα only or in the presence of a combination of rhCTGF (100 ng/ml) + rhTGFβ1 (10 ng/ml) as revealed by qRT-PCR analysis. p-values for combination of rhIL-1β/rhIL-1β + rhTNFα + rhCTGF + rhTGF-β1 are with respect to rhIL-1β alone or rhIL-1β + rhTNFα alone respectively (*p ≤ 0.05). ‡These samples did not show expression of MMP-13 or Cox-2 on treatment with rhIL-1β alone or combination of rhIL-1β + rhTNFα.