Figure 2
From: ASK1 promotes uterine inflammation leading to pathological preterm birth
ASK1 facilitates LPS-induced inflammatory response leading to preterm birth. (A–D) The levels of IL-1 (A), IL-6 (B), TNF-α (C), and CXCL2 (D) in the peritoneal fluid taken 1 hour after LPS injection were measured by ELISA. (n = 7–14 mice in each group), (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01). (E,F) mRNA expression levels of TNF-α (E) and CXCL2 (F) in the myometrium at 1 hour after LPS injection were measured by real time RT-PCR. (n = 4–10 mice in each group), (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01). (G) Representative images of immunohistochemical staining for F4/80, a maker for macrophages, in the cervix taken 8 hours after LPS injection. Scale bars = 50 μm. (H) The quantitation of the number of F4/80-positive cells in the stroma of cervix. The number of F4/80-positive cells was counted and averaged. (n = 3–4 in each group), (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01). Cells counted as F4/80-positive in representative images presented in (G) are shown with arrows in Fig. S3. (I) MMP8 mRNA expression levels in the cervix at 8 hours after LPS injection detected by real time RT-PCR. (n = 6–10 mice in each group), (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01).
