Figure 4.

Upregulation of kynurenines and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) synthesis in the contacting and noncontacting cocultures of PBMCs with ASCs. Cells were prepared and cocultured as described in Figures 1(a) and 1(d) and Figures 2(b), 2(c), 2(e), and 2(f). PBMCs were isolated from peripheral blood of 11 (a) or 5-7 (b–e) healthy blood donors. Five HD/ASC lines and AS/ASCs obtained from 12 (a) or 5-7 (b–e) patients were used. The concentrations of kynurenines and PGE₂ in culture supernatants were measured as described in Material and Methods. Data are shown as the Tukey's boxes; the number of performed experiments (n) is shown. ^∗P = 0.05‐0.01, ^∗∗P = 0.01‐0.001, and ^∗∗∗P = 0.001‐0.0001 for comparison of cell cocultures vs. control separate cultures and as indicated. ^##P = 0.01‐0.001 and ^###P = 0.001‐0.0001 for comparison of contact vs. transwell cultures.