Presence of Stromal Cells Enhances Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) Induction in Lung Bronchial Epithelium after Protracted Exposure to Oxidative Stress of Gamma Radiation

Figure 4

Immunofluorescence staining of EMT marker expression in lung epithelial cell lines cocultured with MRC-9 fibroblasts: (a) vimentin in BEAS-2B and (b) E-cadherin in HBEC-3KT. The cocultures were exposed to 0.1 or 1 Gy of protracted radiation at the dose rates of 1.4 or 14 mGy/h, upper panels. Lower panels: positive control TGF-β treatment and the EMT enhancement after the combined treatment of the TGF-β+0.1 cells or 1 Gy of protracted radiation. Vimentin and E-cadherin are stained in green. The nuclei are counterstained with propidium iodide (red). White arrows indicate the cells with consistent changes. Scale bars: 20 μm. The enlarged same size areas on the right side of (a) for vimentin and (b) for E-cadherin with numbers 1-4 are visualising the change in cell shape and size: (1) control, (2) TGF-β, (3) 1 Gy, and (4) TGF-β+1 Gy. (c) ImageJ measurements of the cell size in the BEAS-2B and HBEC-3KT cells from the image series (a, b). , , and ; one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s posttest ().

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