Figure 5.

LCN2 suppressed the secretion of inflammatory cytokines in UPEC-infected bladder cells. SV-HUC-1 cells were first pretreated with 15 mM glucose, followed by treatment with different concentrations of LCN2 (1, 5, and 25 μg/mL) for 24 h and infection with pGFP-UPEC (MOI of 1:100) for 4 h, as described in the text. The definitions of the letters on the X axis: U, UPEC infection alone; G, with 15 mM glucose pretreatment alone. The release levels of cytokines IL-8, IL-10, IL-1β, and IL-6 from UPEC-infected SV-HUC-1 cells were measured by CBA. Cells infected with UPEC alone (MOI of 1:100) were used as positive controls. The data are expressed as means ± SDs from three separate experiments. An analysis of variance was used to evaluate differences between various treatment groups and controls. Statistical differences between groups were determined using the Mann–Whitney U Student’s t-test. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. **** p < 0.0001 compared to the positive control groups. #### p < 0.0001 for comparisons between two groups.