Figure 2.

Treatment with tussilagone inhibited AOM/DSS-induced inflammatory mediators in the colon. (a) iNOS, COX-2, TNF-α, IL-6 and HO-1 in the colons of mice were detected by Western blot and visualized by chemiluminescence. Representative results are shown and β-actin served as an equal loading control. (b) The inflammatory mediator proteins were quantified by densitometric analysis and normalized to β-actin. (c) The colonic levels of iNOS, COX-2, TNF-α, IL-6 and HO-1 mRNAs were quantified by real-time RT-PCR and normalized with respect to the mRNA level of the housekeeping gene, GAPDH. Results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001, compared to the AOM/DSS-treated mice.