Calycosin Alleviates Injury in Airway Epithelial Cells Caused by PM 2.5 Exposure via Activation of AMPK Signalling

Figure 4

Calycosin inhibits PM 2.5-induced cell damage via the AMP-activated protein kinase pathway. (a) Levels of p-AMPK and AMPK in B2B cells. The P value between negative control group and 50  μm group for “^∗∗” is 0.0014 < 0.01; the P value between negative control group and 100  μm group for “^∗∗” is 0.0018 < 0.01; the P value between compound C group and 100  μm without compound C group for “^∗∗” is 0.0013 < 0.01. (b) The absorbance of B2B cells at 490 nm. The P value for “^∗” is 0.0316 < 0.05. (c) Relative levels of IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA transcripts and levels of IL-6 and IL-8 in the supernatants of cultured cells. The P value for “^∗” is 0.0175 < 0.05 in IL-6, and the P value for “^∗∗” is 0.0086 < 0.01 in IL-8 for relative mRNA expression. The P value for “^∗” is 0.0423 < 0.05 in IL-6, and the P value for “^∗” is 0.0112 < 0.05 in IL-8 for the protein levels. (d) Immunofluorescence analysis of the NF-κB p65 distribution in B2B cells (400 × magnification; red = NF-κB p65; blue = DAPI staining of nuclei).

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