Cells and tissues were homogenized and total RNA extracted using the RNeasy Micro kit (Qiagen) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Total RNA concentrations were measured using NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer. For RNAseq, RNA was directly analyzed and quality checked before sequencing. RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA using Superscript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen) with random hexamer primers. Transcript abundance was determined by quantitative PCR using SYBR Green PCR mix (Applied Biosystems), with primer pairs against IL6, TNFα and GAPDH.
