Figure 4.

Western blot analyses of E-cadherin and α-SMA in A549 epithelial cells stimulated with PAR₄ agonists and TGF-β. (A, B) Representative Western blots of E-cadherin and α-SMA in A549 cells treated for 96 h with thrombin (A; 1 or 5 U/ml) or synthetic peptides (B; AYPGKF-NH₂ or FKGPYA-NH₂; 100 μM). (C, D) Summarized densitometric data. Effects of PAR₄ agonists (thrombin; 1 U/ml and AYPGKF-NH₂; 100 μM), FKGPYA-NH₂ (100 μM) or TGF-β (5 ng/ml) on the expressions of E-cadherin (C) and α-SMA (D). Results are based on densitometric analyses of the ratio of each marker protein to GAPDH (as internal standard). Each bar represents the mean ± S.E.M. from 4–12 preparations. **P < 0.01 compared with the control.