Fig. 7

Budesonide-containing treatments preferentially exerted anti-inflammatory effects on lung epithelial cells. A549 cells were cultured until they reached ~ 90% confluence and treated with TNFα (10 ng/mL) or vehicle and with vehicle or drug combinations (B, G, F, BF, GF, and BGF) for 3 h. Then, the cells were harvested and further analyzed. A, B Relative mRNA expression levels of IL-6 (A) and CXCL-8 (B) in A549 cells from all the experimental treatment groups (n = 3 biologically independent replicates). The data are presented as the mean ± S.E.M. (standard error of mean). One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc test was used for all figures. *, p < 0.05 compared with the PBS/Vehicle group, #, p < 0.05 compared with the PBS/TNFα group for all figures