Fig. 3
From: Budesonide and fluticasone propionate differentially affect the airway epithelial barrier
Effect of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) and equivalent concentrations of budesonide (BUD) and fluticasone propionate (FP) on cell-cell contact proteins in 16HBE cells. 16HBE cells were seeded in duplicates, grown to confluence, serum-deprived overnight, pre-treated with or without 16 nM BUD or 10 nM FP for 2 hours and exposed to vehicle (control) or 7.5 % CSE (a) E-cadherin and ZO-1 protein was detected by western blotting after 24 hours. Actin was used as loading control. Densitometry was performed, protein expression was related to the actin levels and normalized values (Mean ± SEM, n = 3) are shown. b mRNA was isolated after 6 hours. E-cadherin expression was related to the expression of the housekeeping genes β2μG and PPIA and levels (Mean ± SEM, n = 4) are expressed as fold change compared to the control (2-ΔΔCt). c Immunofluorescent staining for ZO-1 was performed after 24 hours. A representative of 3 independent experiments is shown