Figure 3. ELISA results regarding the amounts of IL-6, IL-1, and TNF-α in HCECs. Pretreatment with 17-β-estradiol inhibited the hyperosmolarity- induced increases in IL-6, IL-1, and TNF-α production. Data are the mean±SEM of the results from three independent experiments. With pretreatment with 17-β-estradiol, IL-6, IL-1, and TNF-α production was greatly inhibited (black box) as compared with cells cultured in hyperosmolar media without pretreated 17-β-estradiol (white box). *p<0.05, **p<0.01.