Fig. 6

Testing VitE:SM nanoemulsions loaded with the TGF-βR1 inhibitor (LY2157299). a For LY loading, the TGF-βR1 inhibitor was dissolved in the organic phase and injected in the aqueous phase as previously explained (Fig. 1a). VitE:SM = Vitamin E + sphingomyelin nanosystem; VitE:SM:LY = Vitamin E + sphingomyelin + encapsulated TGF-βR1 inhibitor. b Left: Western immunoblot analysis of ARG1 protein levels in muBMDMs polarized as in Fig. 2a to M0, M1 or M2 and treated with empty or LY encapsulated VitE:SM nanoemulsions at two different concentrations: 1 and 0.5 mg/mL. Right: Densitometric analysis of the immunoblots, with the bars representing the mean fold change ± SD (n = 3), with untreated M2 set as 1.0. c Analysis by qRT-PCR of two M2 markers, Arg1 and Egr2, in the same samples as described in b. Bars represent the mean fold change ± SD (n = 3), with untreated M2 set as 1.0. d Analysis by qRT-PCR of M1 markers, Cd86, Il12b and Il1b, in the same samples as in b and c. Bars represent the mean fold-change ± SD (n = 3), with untreated M1 set as 1.0. ∗  = p < 0.05; ∗  ∗  = p < 0.01; ∗  ∗  ∗  = p < 0.001; ∗  ∗  ∗  ∗  = p < 0.0001; ns  not significant. One-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post hoc test, compared to M2 in b and c and to M1 in d