Fig. 4

Effect of equivalent concentrations of budesonide (BUD) and fluticasone propionate (FP) on EGF-induced barrier dysfunction and EGF activity in 16HBE cells. a 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 EGF. Resistance was measured at 400 Hz using ECIS. Resistance levels were normalized to the levels prior to the addition of 7.5 % CSE or vehicle. Mean ± SEM levels (n = 3) are shown. In the upper panel, p < 0.01 for control versus EGF, p < 0.01 for EGF versus EGF + BUD and p < 0.01 for EGF + BUD versus EGF + FP, as analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA. The area-under-the-curve (AUC) was calculated and mean ± SEM levels (n = 3) are shown. * = p < 0.05 and ** = p < 0.01 between the indicated groups (repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post-hoc test). b 16HBE cells were 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 EGF for 60 min. Phosphorylated EGF receptor (p-EGFR) or total EGFR was detected by western blotting. GAPDH was used as loading control. Densitometry was performed, protein expression was related to the actin levels and normalized values (Mean ± SEM, n = 6) are shown. * = p < 0.05 between the indicated groups as determined by the Student’s t-test