IL1B and infection: RT-qPCR analysis shown in Table 2 indicates that the combined hormones modulate IIR elements differentially: with respect to pro-inflammatory cytokines, S. aureus induced the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, as previously shown [15,19], the combined hormones increased the expression of TNF-α and IL-1β with respect to the control, but in infected bMECs, the expression of IL-1β (Table 1) was reduced in relation to infection alone.