Fig. 7

The effect of MCC950 on α-quartz-induced cytokine release and cytotoxicity in HBEC3-KT cells and THP-1 macrophages. HBEC3-KT cells (a-c) and THP-1 macrophages (d-f) were exposed to 0–10 μM MCC950 and incubated for 30 min before adding 200 μg/mL α-quartz and incubating the cells for 24 h. The levels of CXCL8 (a and d) and IL-1β (b and e) in the cell culture supernatant were detected by ELISA while the cell viability (c and f) was determined by alamarBlue© assay. Results are presented as mean ± SD (n = 5) and are normalized to the mean response of each experiment. Statistical significance is based on a two-way ANOVA followed by Dunnet’s and Sidak post-tests. Values in (a and b) were log-transformed prior to statistical analysis to satisfy model assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity. * Statistically significant difference from the respective control. # Statistical significance between exposure groups