Figure 3 Sodium citrate (SC) prevents pro-inflammatory cytokine enrichment in a dose-dependent manner. Analysis of interleukin (IL)-1β (A) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (B) concentrations in human blood samples before incubation (1) or after incubation at 37°C for 24 h in the presence of either saline (2) or 4% SC (3). Dose-dependent effects of SC concentration on IL-1β (C) and TNF-α (D) production. The concentration in human blood samples is shown before incubation (1), after incubation at 37°C for 24 h (2), after incubation with the SC 5-fold less than the working concentration (3), and after incubation with the SC at 4% working concentration (4). A 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) reveals a statistically significant decrease in IL-1β and TNF-α concentrations in 24-h incubated blood in the presence of SC in a dose-dependent manner, compared with the saline control (*** P<0.001; nonsignificant [ns], P>0.01). The figure was created using ImageJ software version 1.53e; Java 1.8.0_172.