Fig. 5.

Glutamate induces pro-inflammatory responses. MCs (1 × 10⁶/ml) were exposed to glutamate (10, 100, or 500 µM) for 1 h, 4 h, or 72 h. a–d Relative mRNA levels (fold change) corresponding to pro-inflammatory markers IL-6, CCL2/MCP-1, CCL7/MCP-3, and IL-13 were quantified by qPCR. The mRNA levels were normalized to the levels of the housekeeping gene GAPDH. e–g Protein levels of IL-6, CCL2/MCP-1, and CCL7/MCP-3 were measured by ELISAs. Data are presented as the mean values ± SEM from at least two independent experiments. Significance was calculated with one-way and/or two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01