Fig. 3.

Effects of DEX and high-dose IgG on inflammatory cytokine-induced expression of IL-6 and G-CSF in HCAECs. HCAECs were stimulated with 100 ng/ml of TNF-α, or 10 ng/ml of IL-1α or IL-1β, for 48 h in the presence and absence of 10 mg/ml IgG and 1000 nM DEX, alone or in combination. Protein concentrations of IL-6 and G-CSF in the culture supernatants (a) and mRNA levels of IL-6 and G-CSF (b) in HCAECs were measured by ELISA and qPCR, respectively. Data are shown as the mean ± SD of triplicate samples and are representative of two individual experiments using HCAEC lots from two different donors. **P < 0.01 compared with 100 ng/ml TNF-α; †P < 0.05 and ††P < 0.01 compared with 10 ng/ml IL-1α; and ‡P < 0.05 and ‡‡P < 0.01 compared with 10 ng/ml IL-1β