Fig. 1

Effects of the gem-difluorobisarylic derivatives on PGE₂ production and COX-2 expression in activated macrophages. BMDM were treated with 6 increasing concentrations, prior to the addition of 10 ng/mL LPS for 24 h. PGE₂ secretion was measured and expressed as percentage of LPS for a compounds A1 and A2 and b compounds A3, A4 and A5. Corresponding IC₅₀ fitting curves are shown. c, d COX-2 and β-actin expression in basal and LPS-treated BMDM with 50 µM of all compounds. Results are obtained from the same blot. Protein bands for basal or LPS-treated macrophages, in the absence of inhibitors, as shown in c and d, are identical for illustration purpose. Dose–response effect of compounds e A4 and f A5 on COX-2 expression. β-actin was used as loading control. Ratio of COX-2/β-actin was calculated after densitometry analysis using ImageJ software. Data are represented as mean ± SEM (n = 4), *p < 0.05 versus LPS (One-way Anova followed by the Dunnett’s test)