Figure 2.

Effects of TF-3 on ROS generation and TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA expression levels. Cells were treated with CSE (10%) for 6 h with or without TF-3 (20 µM) pretreatment. (A) ROS generation was determined using a fluorescence microscope. Scale bars, 50 µm. (B) Quantification of ROS generation. mRNA expression levels were measured using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR using GAPDH as a reference gene. Quantification of the relative mRNA expression levels of (C) TNF-α, (D) IL-6 and (E) IL-1β. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments indicated by dots. One-way ANOVA was performed followed by Tukey's post hoc test for statistical comparisons among more than two groups. ^*P<0.05, ^**P<0.01, ^***P<0.001 and ^****P<0.0001. CSE, cigarette smoke extract; TF-3, theaflavin-3,3'-digallate; ROS, reactive oxygen species.