Figure 5

Evaluation of BEAS-2B bronchial epithelial cells exposed to varying concentrations of cigarette smoke extract, AdPirin and AdNull. A. Cytoplasmic nucleosome ELISA for apoptosis index. After cells were lysed and centrifuged to pellet nuclei, the supernatant was assessed by ELISA for the presence of cytoplasmic nucleosomes. The apoptotic index is the relative fluorescence value for given conditions, normalized to the naive control cells. Significant increases seen in apoptosis for cells exposed to 50% CSE, AdPirin (10⁴ particle units) and AdPirin (10³ particle units).B. Mean RNA expression levels for pirin assessed by quantitative TaqMan PCR in BEAS-2B cells exposed to varying concentrations of cigarette smoke extract (CSE), AdPirin and AdNull over time. The ordinate represents the fold change in pirin expression ± standard error in samples exposed to various conditions relative to the background pirin expression level in naive cells. Asterisk indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05) for conditions compared to naive control cells.