Fig. 4

RelA-knock down (KD) reduces mucosal TGFβ by attenuating EMT. RelA shRNA-expressing hSAECs under control of a Dox inducible promoter were cultured in the presence of DOX for 7 days and then treated in the absence or presence of CDE for 4 d. Abundance of RelA, SNAI1, ZEB1 and CDH1 mRNAs were determined by Q-RT-PCR. *p < 0.05, post hoc t-test for n = 4–6 biological replicates. The basal levels of SNAI1 and ZEB1 were affected by RELA depletion, an expected finding because RELA directly binds to SNAI1 and ZEB1 promoters [8], and functions as an epigenetic suppressor in the absence of pathway activation [65] To control for this, data are normalized to each genotype untreated control