Figure 3

Response of interleukin-6 (IL-6) to SMF exposure and putative activating mechanisms in hEBD LVEC cells. (A) Levels of IL-6 mRNA were determined by qRT-PCR during the first 24 h of SMF exposure. (B) IL-6 concentrations in the culture medium of SMF-exposed and control cells were determined by ELISA at the indicated times. (C) Levels of extracellular and intracellular calcium after four hours of SMF exposure show the expected reciprocal relationship (a time course for extracellular calcium is shown in Figure 11A). (D) Levels of TLR4 mRNA were determined by qRT-PCR during the first 24 h of SMF exposure. In all cases the data shown represents three or more independent experiments (denoted as n ≥ 3 in subsequent figure legends) and error bars represent standard (SD); in Panels A, C, and D, p < 0.05 for all data points shown that compare SMF-treated and control cells; in Panel B, "*" indicates p < 0.05 and "**" indicates p < 0.01 (in this figure, and throughout this study, statistical significance was determined by the Student t-test and differences were considered to be significant when p < 0.05 (or p < 0.01 when specifically indicated)).