Fig. 6

BHB promotes IL-4-induced M2 macrophage polarization through the STAT6-dependent signaling pathway. a, b BMDMs isolated from mice were stimulated with BHB or IL-4 alone or together. Forty-eight hours later, the protein expression of the indicated genes was determined by western blot. a Representative immunoblot images of p-JAK2, JAK2, p-STAT6, and STAT6 in different treatment groups. b Relative protein levels of p-JAK2/JAK2 and p-STAT6/STAT6 in different treatment groups. The density of protein bands was quantified by ImageJ software. c–e BMDMs isolated from mice were stimulated with IL-4, and then treated with BHB or AS1517499 alone or together. Forty-eight hours later, these treated cells were collected for the following analyses. c Representative immunoblot images of p-STAT6 and STAT6 in different treatment groups. d Relative protein levels of p-STAT6/STAT6 were determined by western blot and quantified by Image-pro-plus software. e Relative mRNA levels of M2-associated genes Arg-1, IL-10, Chil3, and Retnla were determined by real-time PCR and normalized to GAPDH. Data represent means ± SEM from three (b and d) and four (e) independent experiments; NS, not significant;**P< 0.01 by unpaired Student’s t test