Fig. 4

SB203580 enhances the LPS-induced increase in G-CSF expression in p38α MAPK knockdown RAW264.7 macrophages. a RAW264.7 cells were infected with either lentivirus carrying specific shRNA for p38α MAPK or lentivirus carrying luciferase shRNA (Luc) and selected with puromycin (5 μg/ml) for 3 days, then p38α MAPK and β-actin protein levels in the cells were determined by Western blotting (upper panel), and mRNA levels were determined by RT-qPCR (lower panel). b Control knockdown (Luc) and p38α MAPK knockdown cells were pretreated for 30 min with DMSO or 10 μM SB203580, then 100 ng/ml of LPS was added and incubation continued for 6 h, then the G-CSF mRNA levels were determined by RT-qPCR, normalized to GAPDH mRNA levels, and expressed relative to the value for the appropriate DMSO control, set as 1. The results are the mean ± SD for three independent experiments. *p < 0.05, compared to the corresponding cells not treated with SB203580