Fig. 2.

CHRNA7 and CHRFAM7A expression in THP-I cells after nicotine exposure. a mRNA of THP-I cells was isolated and expression levels of CHRNA7 and CHRFAM7A were determined by QPCR. B2M was used as a reference gene. b THP-I cells were primed with vehicle or 10 µM nicotine at day 1 for 20 min and washed afterwards. 24 h later, at day 2, cells were treated with vehicle or nicotine for 3 h, washed and challenged with 0 or 10 ng/ml LPS for 2 h. A scheme of the experimental set-up is represented in the right panel. RNA was isolated and CHRNA7 and CHRFAM7A expression levels were determined using RT-PCR. PCR products were visualized on agarose gel electrophoresis. CHRNA7 (c) and CHRFAM7A (d) mRNA levels were expressed as a percentage of B2M expression. Data are representative of three independent experiments in duplicate. * p < 0.05, differences from vehicle-treated and unstimulated cells using Mann-Whitney U test.