FIG. 5.

(A and B) Serum cytokine and CS levels measured in LPS-treated STAT3 conditional-mutant (open bars) and control (solid bars) mice. The mice were treated as described in the legend to Fig. 2. Blood was collected at the indicated time points, and the cytokine content of the serum was measured by ELISA (A) or the CS content was measured by radioimmunoassay (B). The data are shown as mean values + standard errors of the mean of at least five (A) or three (B) mice per group. The symbols indicate statistically significant differences between the two groups of mice at each time point: #, P < 0.01; ∗, P < 0.001. (C) Cytokine levels upon pretreatment with dexamethasone. Mice were treated with either dexamethasone or apyrogen saline solution 30 min prior to LPS injection, and blood was collected 1 h later and subjected to ELISA analysis. +, present; −, absent.