Figure 8. Proinflammatory cytokines increased MIR146B promoter activity in ARPE-19 cells. A: Inflammatory cytokines increased the expression of miR-146b-5p in ARPE-19 cells. The cells were treated with a mixture of interferon (IFN)-γ (100 u/ml), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (10 ng/ml), and interleukin (IL)-1β (10 ng/ml) for 16 h and the miR-146b-5p expression analyzed by real-time PCR. *p<0.001 when compared to control, n=4. B: MIR146B promoter activity in ARPE-19 cells. The cells were transfected with either a MIR146B promoter-luciferase construct or the vector and the luciferase activity was estimated as a measure of promoter activity. *p<0.001 when compared to vector, n=3. C: Inflammatory cytokines increased the MIR146B promoter activity in ARPE-19 cells. The cells were first transfected with the MIR146B promoter-luciferase construct and then treated with the indicated cytokines (IFN-γ, 100 u/ml; TNF-α, 10 ng/ml; or IL-1β, 10 ng/ml) or their combination for 24 h. The promoter activity was estimated by measuring the luciferase activity. *p<0.01 when compared to control, n=3. The data shown are representative of three similar experiments.