Figure 1.

Effects of dexamethasone (1 mg/kg, i.p.) administered either 1 hr before (pre‐DEX) or 1 hr after (post‐DEX) injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (4 mg/kg, i.p.) on (A) plasma TNF‐α, (B) plasma IL‐1β, (C) plasma sICAM‐1, (D) plasma NO_×, (E) lung myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and (F) liver MPO activity all determined 4 hrs after LPS injection. Absolute MPO activity in control (saline‐injected animals) was 14.7 ± 0.8 and 1.4 ± 0.05 OD₄₀₅/μg DNA (n= 6) for lung and liver, respectively. ‘Saline’ indicates data from animals injected with saline (1 ml/kg, i.p.) in place of LPS. ‘Veh + LPS’ indicates data obtained from animals injected with vehicle for dexamethasone (ethanol/olive oil 5/95 v/v, 1 ml/kg) 1 hr before LPS (4 mg/kg, i.p.) administration. Results are mean ± S.E., n= 6.