Figure 2.

Interleukin-8 (IL-8), interleukin-6 (IL-6), Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and Tumor necrosis factors-α (TNF-α) concentration (pg ml⁻¹) released by Caco-2 cells. Cells were treated for 24 h with 100 μg ml⁻¹ of Raw-BCP (black bars), Unstarted-BCP (white), and Started-BCP (gray). A set of samples was stimulated with the interleukin-1β (IL-1β; 25 ng ml⁻¹) in the last 18 h. Levels of cytokines released by untreated cells (negative control, green bars) and by cells treated only with the IL-1β (positive control, dotted bars) were also reported. Data are the means (± SD) of three biological replicates analyzed in triplicate. Bars with different superscript letters are significantly different (p < 0.05).