Fig. 4

Extracellular LPS-induced release of TNF-α in long-term cultured human PCLS. Human PCLS were treated once at indicated time points without (control) or with 100 ng/mL LPS and incubated for 20 h. The cytokine levels of TNF-α in PCLS culture supernatants were determined by ELISA. TNF-α levels are depicted as mg/mL. Data are presented as mean ± SEM, *p < 0.05 compared to TNF-α secreted by untreated PCLS, ★p < 0.05 compared LPS-induced TNF-α at day 1, Mann-Whitney test (n = 8_{(day 1)}, n = 6_{(day5, 8, 12)}, n = 4_{(day 14, 15)}). TNF-α = Tumor necrosis factor alpha, LPS = Lipopolysaccharide, ELISA = Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay