Coculture with Late, but Not Early, Human Endothelial Progenitor Cells Up Regulates IL-1β Expression in THP-1 Monocytic Cells in a Paracrine Manner

Figure 2

Late human EPCs upregulated IL-1β expression in THP-1 monocytic cells. Coculture with late but not early EPCs led to a significant increase of IL-1β mRNA levels in THP-1 cells as assayed by real-time RT-PCR with GAPDH as internal control (a). The conditioned medium (CM) from the late EPCs/THP-1 cell coculture system contained a significant higher level of IL-1β protein as measured by a high sensitivity ELISA Kit (b). In contrast, neither early nor late EPCs affected IL-1α (c) or TNF-α expression (d). Coculture with terminally differentiated HUVECs did not result in changes of IL-1β mRNA levels in THP-1 cells (e). *𝑃<0.01 (𝑛=5), **𝑃<0.005 (𝑛=5), both compared to THP-1 cells cultured alone. eEPC: early EPC; LEPC: late EPC.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)