Figure 3.

Effects of hoveniae semen seu fructus ethanol (HSFE) extract on (a–c) production of inflammatory cytokines and (d–f) their mRNA expressions after LPS stimulation of macrophages. Cells were seeded with (a–c) 2.5 × 10⁵ cells/well on a 24-well culture plate or (d–f) 1.5 × 10⁶ cells/well on a 6-well culture plate and preincubated for 18 h. Then, cells were pretreated with HSFE for 1 h and stimulated with LPS for another (a–c) 24 h or (d–f) 6 h. At least three independent tests were repeated to ensure reproducibility. Data represent the mean ± SEM of duplicate determinations from three independent experiments. ^#P < 0.001 (vs. control) and ^∗∗P < 0.001 (vs. LPS) values were considered statistically significant.