Fig. 3

Naltrexone does not affect IL-8 levels in epithelial cell lines and patient sera. Stimulation of HCT116 (a) and CACO2 (b) cell layers for 24 h with bacteria results in significantly increased IL-8 levels in culture supernatants as determined by ELISA. Co-treatment with 1 μg/mL Naltrexone does not affect basal levels or bacteria-induced levels of IL-8 production in these cell lines. c–f Serum from patients was taken before low dose Naltrexone (NTX) treatment, and 3 or 6 months into treatment. IL-8 was detectable in 6 of 7 patients c by ELISA, whereas TNFα was detectable in 5 patients (d). There was no significant difference in the mean IL-8 (e) or TNFα (f) levels between responders and non-responders to low dose Naltrexone