Figure 2

Macrophage lysates from alcohol-fed rats impaired alveolar epithelial barrier function. Freshly isolated alveolar epithelial cells from control-fed rats were cultured in transwells with or without cellular lysates of alveolar macrophages from alcohol-fed rats and anti-TGFβ1 Ab (1 μg/ml). The barrier function of epithelial monolayer was measured (A) by transepithelial resistance (TER) and (B) Texas Red dextran (10,000 MW) flux as described in the Methods. N = 5; * indicates p < 0.05 compared with lysates from control-fed rats in the co-culture group. ** indicates p < 0.05 compared with the group without anti-TGFβ1 Ab (third column).