Figure 3

Mitigation of the up-regulation of (A) HO-1 mRNA expression and (B) IL-8 mRNA expression (C) IL-8 cytokine release in antioxidant treated A549 cells after exposure to ZnO NPs (20 μg/mL) for 6 hr. Statistical significance after comparing no NAC or 5 mM NAC cells where *p < 0.05, ** < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM of the fold levels compared to untreated controls at each time point (n = 3) separate experiments, each performed with triplicates).