Fig. 4.

Effect of HFS on TNF-α-stimulated cytokine induction. a In vitro experimental design. Astrocytes were stimulated with HFS (HFS ON) for 6 h, TNF-α was added to the culture media during the last hour of stimulation, and cytokine mRNAs and proteins were measured. b, c IL-6 (b) and MCP-1 mRNA expression (c) were analyzed by RT-PCR and normalized to RPL. Bar graphs represent means ± SD of five independent experiments. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001 vs. control non-stimulated cells and #p < 0.05 vs. TNF-α-treated cells. d, e MCP-1 protein expression was measured by ELISA in cell lysates (d) and in cell culture supernatant (e). Bar graphs represent means ± SD of five independent experiments. *p < 0.05 and ***p < 0.001 vs. control non-stimulated cells