Figure 5

Involvement of the MEK/ERK1/2 pathway in IL-8 release induced by MCh. hASMc were stimulated with CSE (5%) (Figure 5A) or IL-1β (1 ng/mL) (Figure 5B), in the absence or presence of MCh (10 μM) and/or U0126 (3 μM) for 24 hours. Supernatants were analyzed for the presence of IL-8. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 compared to basal; ^$$$p < 0.001 compared to CSE alone, ^†††p < 0.001 compared to the absence of U0126. (One-way ANOVA followed by Newman-Keuls multiple comparisons test). (Figure 5C and 5D) hASMc were stimulated with CSE (5%) or IL-1β (1 ng/mL) in the absence or presence of MCh (10 μM) for 60 min. Cell lysates were analyzed for phospho-ERK1/2 by western blot and corrected for the expression of total ERK1/2, which was used as a loading control. Data represent means ± SE of 5 independent experiments each performed in duplicate. ^$p < 0.05 compared to CSE alone (Student's t-test for paired observations).