Fig. 5

TLR4 downstream kinases are involved in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced and dexamethasone (DEX)-reversed IL-6 secretion. The cells were treated with LPS, DEX and kinase inhibitors for 24 h, and then, the culture supernatants were harvested for measuring the concentrations of IL-6 using ELISA. a P38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580 (20 μM), b JNK inhibitor SP600125 (10 μM), c PI3K inhibitor LY294002 (10 μM) and d ERK inhibitor U0126 (10 μM). All values are expressed as the mean ± SD and each experiment was conducted with triplicate cultures. The intergroup comparisons were performed using Student’s two-tailed unpaired t-test