<i>In vitro</i> mPGES-1 blockade impairs nicotine’s limiting effects on TNFα production by LPS activated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

<p>Human PBMC cultures were freshly prepared from healthy blood donors using ficoll density gradient separation. (a) TNFα levels measured by ELISA in culture supernatants after treatment with endotoxin, LPS (100ng/ml) for 6, 14 and 20 hours respectively. Untreated cells served as control. TNFα levels in the culture supernatants were measured by ELISA (*p>0.05, **p<0.01; control versus LPS; One-way ANOVA, *p>0.05; LPS versus LPS+mPGES-1 inhibitor; One-way ANOVA). (b) TNFα levels measured by ELISA in culture supernatants after treatment with nicotine (100 μM) for 14 hours. (*p>0.05; LPS versus LPS+ Nicotine; One-way ANOVA, **p>0.05; LPS+ Nicotine versus LPS+Nicotine+mPGES-1 inhibitor; One-way ANOVA). Each sample was run as duplicates during ELISA and values are represented as mean ±SEM from (a) 3 and (b) 4 independent experiments.