Exploitation of the nicotinic anti-inflammatory pathway for the treatment of epithelial inflammatory diseases

Figure 5 Nicotine-treated human monocytes exhibit augmented levels of phosphorylated (Ser9) GSK3-β in monocytes stimulated with the Gram negative bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis. Monocytes were pre-treated for 2 h with 100 ng/mL of nicotine and stimulated for 60 min with P. gingivalis (MOI = 10). Western blot was performed using whole-cell lysates (20 μg) and probing for GSK3 using a phospho-specific GSK3-β (Ser9; denoted pGSK3) antibody. Blot was stripped and re-probed for total p38 to ensure equivalent loading. Lane 1: Nonstimulated; Lane 2: P. gingivalis + Nicotine; Lane 3: P. gingivalis. Data are representative of three experiments.