Effect of dexamethasone treatment alone on inflammatory mRNA expression.

A549 cells were either not treated or stimulated with IL-1β (1 ng/ml), dexamethasone (Dex) (1 µM) or a combination of the two for 1, 2, 6 or 18 h prior to harvesting for real-time PCR analysis of 39 inflammatory genes and GAPDH. Data (n = 3) normalised to GAPDH are presented as means ± SE for genes showing greater than 2-fold induction by dexamethasone at any time point. Significance relative to non-stimulated samples was tested at time points showing greater than 2-fold induction using a paired t-test and is indicated: *, P<0.05; **, P<0.01; ***, P<0.001.