Figure 8.
TNF-α production in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells upon stimulation with progesterone metabolites. Progesterone (Prog), 5α-dihydroprogesterone (5α-DHP), 6α-hydroxypregnanolone (6α-OH-Pregn) and dexamethasone (Dexa), were added at a concentration of 10−3 M to the PBMCs obtained from 3 different female donors for 24 h. 6 h after first steroid hormone contact, PBMCs were activated with PMA/Ionomycin. TNF-α positive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were counted by FACS analysis. The y-axis shows the % of CD4+ (a) and CD8+ (b) T cells positively staining for TNF-α. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.0001, ns = not significant.