Fig. 4

Production of MCP-1 and TGF-β after 24 h incubation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of HC with l-cysteine, l-cysteinylglycine, and Acetohexamide. PBMCs were stimulated with various concentrations of l-cysteine (a, d), l-cysteinylglycine (b, e), and acetohexamide (c, f), together with a negative control, i.e. RPMI and DMSO, for 24 h, after which concentrations of MCP-1 (a–c) and TGF-β (d–f) were measured in the supernatants with ELISA. b Shows that stimulation with 25 mM l-cysteinylglycine resulted in a significantly higher MCP-1 production compared to RPMI as a negative control (P = 0.0238). No significant differences were when stimulating with l-cysteinylglycine, l-cysteine, or acetohexamide (a, c–f). Data were analysed with the Mann–Whitney test and are depicted as mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was attained if P ≤ 0.05. HC healthy controls, MCP Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein, TGF tumor growth factor, RPMI Roswell Park Memorial Institute culture medium, DMSO dimethylsulfoxide, ELISA enzyme-linked immuno assay, SEM standard error of mean. *P ≤ 0.05