Figure 2

CERK inhibition blocks the TNF-α-mediated pro-inflammatory changes in primary human monocytes. Human primary monocytes were pretreated with CERK inhibitor (NVP-231: 12 nM) or vehicle for 1 h and then incubated with TNF-α for 2 h. Cells were harvested and mRNA expression of CD11c and CD11b was determined by real-time RT-PCR (A). After 6 h treatment with TNF-α, cells were stained with antibodies against CD11c, CD11b and CD14 along with isotype-matched control antibody. Surface expression of CD14⁺CD11c⁺ and CD14⁺CD11b⁺ was assessed by flow cytometry (B); data are presented as a bar graph of mean staining index, and representative histograms. All data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n ≥ 3). *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, ****p ≤ 0.0001 versus vehicle.