Figure 1

Chemical structures and activities of CXB, UMC, and DMC. CXB has one methyl group at the C-4 (p) position of its terminal phenyl ring; this substitution is lacking in UMC; DMC has two methyl groups (at the 2- and 5-positions). The listed COX-2 inhibitory potency (IC50) of these compounds is derived from two earlier studies that used human recombinant COX-2 in vitro [23, 42]. The bottom chart displays PGE₂ levels (mean ± SE, n = 4) in the culture medium of Bx-PC-3 cells pretreated for 30 minutes with the indicated drug concentrations and then stimulated with 10 μM arachidonic acid, as previously described by Eibl et al. [25].