Curcumin mediated inhibition of IL-6 downstream signaling.

<p>HuF cells were treated with either vehicle (control), IL-1β (10ng/ml), or with a combination of IL-1β (10ng/ml) and curcumin (30μM), or curcumin alone (30μM) for 24 hr. (A) Phosphorylation of STAT3 (p-STAT3) was analyzed by Western blot using a phospho-specific antibody (<i>left panel</i>). β-actin was used as loading control. The band intensity of p-STAT3 was plotted against β-actin and normalized to percentage of control (<i>right panel</i>). The values are expressed as the means ± S.E. (<i>n</i> = 3). *, <i>p</i> < 0.05; **, <i>p</i> < 0.01; ***, <i>p</i> < 0.001. (B) UIII cells were treated with IL-1β (10ng/ml), or with a combination of IL-1β (10ng/ml) and curcumin (30μM) for 24 hr. Cells were fixed in paraformaldehyde and processed for immunocytochemistry to analyze p-STAT3 (<i>green</i>) cellular localization.