Fig. 7

The involvement of the p38 MAPK and PI3K/Akt pathways in ASM cell migration. a and b The A549 cells were co-incubated with CCh (10 μM) or 3 % CSE for 72 h after pretreatment with 4-DAMP (10 μM). Then the cell lysates were assayed for the levels of total and phosphorylated p38 and Akt; the total p38 and Akt levels were used as a loading control. The A549 cells were incubated with CCh (10 μM) for 72 h after pretreatment with LY294002 (10 μM) or SB203580 (10 μM). ASM cell migration initiated by the stimulated A549 cells was detected after 6 h of co-culture in the transwell system, the migrated ASM cells were stained with crystal violet (c, ×100). A quantitative analysis of migration used Image Pro Plus 6.0 (d). The values are expressed as the means ± SEM. n = 4–6. ^† p < 0.05 and ^†† p < 0.01 vs the control group, ^* p < 0.05 and ^** p < 0.01 vs the corresponding group without 4-DAMP. ^‡‡ p < 0.01 vs the CCh group