Fig. 1

Reduced levels of inflammatory cytokines and NO after stimulation of astroglial cells in vitro. Primary neonatal rat astroglial cells were either stimulated with LPS, heat-inactivated (HI P21), or living S. pneumoniae serotype 3 (Living P21) in the presence or absence of metformin. Metformin significantly reduced levels of IL-1β (p = 0.0109 in LPS- and p = 0.0004 in HI P21 stimulated cells, a). IL-6 (p = 0.0050 in LPS-, p = 0.0003 in HI P21- and p = 0.0229 in living P21-stimulated cells, b) and nitric oxide (p = 0.0024 in LPS-, p = 0.0003 in HIP21- and p=0.0005 in living P21-stimualted cells, f) levels were significantly reduced by metformin independent of stimulating agents. IL-10 (p = 0.0015, c) and TNF-α (p < 0.0001, d) levels were significantly reduced in astroglial cells stimulated by HI P21 in the presence of metformin. No effect of metformin treatment on IFN-γ levels (e) was found