Figure 1

The expression of TNF- α in F3- or LPS-induced THP-1 cells. 10⁵ cells/mL concentrations of THP-1 cells were seeded in 96-well microplates and incubated overnight. Then the cells (1.25 × 10⁴) were treated with F3 at dosages indicated as 1 μ g/mL, 10 μ g/mL, 50 μ g/mL, 100 μ g/mL, 200 μ g/mL, and with LPS at the dose of 1 μ g/mL, respectively. The same volume of medium was used as control After 24 hours, the supernatants were collected and in vitro TNF-α activity was determined using Human TNF-α Immunoassay Kit (Quantikine^®, RD systems). TNF-α expression induced by F3 (100 μ g/mL and 200 μ g/mL) is similar to that of LPS (1 μ g/mL). From this TNF-α expression data, we calculated the EC₅₀ (50% effect concentration) of F3-induced to be around 10 μ g/mL. The error bars indicate SD from triplicate independent experiments.