Figure 8

Ten daily doses of ethanol administration potentiated LPS-induced brain TNFα, MCP-1 and IL-1βproduction that remained elevated at 1 week. Male C57BL/6J mice were treated intragastrically with ethanol (5 g/kg, i.g.) for 10 days and were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with LPS at indicated doses 24 hrs after ethanol treatment. Brains were collected at 1 week after LPS injection. The levels of TNFα, MCP-1 and IL-1βprotein were measured by ELISA. (A) In the10-dose ethanol pre-treated group, brain TNFβprotein significantly increased in a LPS dose-dependent manner. (B) Exposure to 10 daily doses of ethanol resulted in a significant increase in brain MCP-1 in a LPS dose-dependent manner. (C) Brain IL-1βprotein synthesis was also enhanced by ethanol pre-treatment. The results are the means ± SEM (n = 6 per group). * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, compared with the saline controls.^#P < 0.05, ^## P < 0.01, compared with the corresponding LPS-treated group.