Fig. 5.

TLR4 activation by saturated CLs requires MD2 and CD14. HEK293 cells were transfected with plasmids encoding hTLR4, hMD2, and hCD14 (black bars), hTLR4 and hMD2 (gray bars), or hTLR4 and hCD14 (white bars) together with a luciferase reporter plasmid dependent on NF-κB activation and a constitutively active reporter vector-encoding renilla luciferase. Two days after transfection, cells were incubated for 6 h with medium alone (C, 0) or the indicated amount of CLs (μM) or LPS (ng/mL). Luciferase and renilla were quantified in cell lysate, and normalized and reported here as fold induction as compared to control. Unpaired t test: differences compared to the control (C) are not significant if p > 0.05(no symbol); *p ≤ 0.02. Each bar represents the mean + standard deviation of three biological replicates (n = 3). Graphs are representative of at least three independent experiments