Figure 6

Comparison of IL-6 levels from the present study with IL-6 serum levels of healthy volunteers in an exposure study after exposure for 6 hours with the indicated welding fumes. (A) IL-6 levels after whole blood incubation with four different concentrations of zinc- and copper-containing welding fume particles for 24 hours and IL-6 serum levels after 6 hours of exposure to three different welding fumes containing (1) copper, zinc and aluminium (“AluBronze”), (2) zinc and aluminium (“ZincAlu”) or (3) zinc with a low amount of aluminium (1.2%) (“ZincZinc”) 6, 10 and 29 hours after the beginning of the exposure. To achieve comparability of whole blood and serum levels, the determined concentrations in pg/ml were divided by the concentration of the corresponding control. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. (n WBA = 7, n exposure study = 13). (B) Normalised IL-6 levels in the whole blood assay (WBA) after incubation with zinc- and copper-containing welding fumes with concentrations of 1 and 10 µg/ml compared with IL-6 serum levels determined 10 h after inhalation of the three different welding fumes described above. The determined levels in pg/ml were divided by the mean level of the corresponding control. Data are shown as mean. (n WBA = 7, n exposure study = 13). Comparison of all levels (10 and 1 µg/ml vs. 10 h AluBronze, ZincAlu and ZincZinc) showed no significant differences.