Fig. 4

Cytokine mRNA expression in macrophages (MΦ) exposed to conditioned media (CM) Following 2-day exposure to either polarizing cytokines or conditioned media from FaDu cells collected under normoxia (CM_NOX) or hypoxia (CM_HOX), MΦ mRNA was extracted and the cytokine expression profile was assessed. Panel (a) shows cytokines produced by M1, M2a, and M2c polarization controls. Panel (b) shows the cytokine mRNA expression after treatment with CM_NOX or CM_HOX from parental FaDu cells. Experiments were repeated a minimum of 5 times, except in the control groups (n ≥ 2). *p ≤ 0.05 vs. NA MΦ (dotted line), the exact p-values can be found in Additional file 5