Figure 4.

Determination of the impact of HO-1 inhibitor ZnPP on IL-8 gene expression and ROS levels in H. pylori-infected AGS cells treated with α-LA. The cells were co-treated with 5 μM α-LA and 2 μM ZnPP for 8 h and then infected with H. pylori. (A) Cellular ROS levels determined by measuring the level of fluorescent DCF. The intracellular ROS is expressed as the relative increase. The value for cells without H. pylori infection in the absence of α-LA was set as 100%. (B) IL-8 mRNA levels determined by real-time PCR analysis and normalized to actin mRNA. (C) The level of IL-8 in cell culture medium determined by ELISA. Data are expressed as the mean ± S.E. of three different experiments. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.