Fig. 3.

Reduced expression of JNK1/2 enhances TJ integrity and attenuates OS-induced TJ disruption. A, left: Caco-2 cells were transfected with 100 or 250 nM missense oligonucleotides (MS-Oligo) or antisense oligonucleotides (AS-Jnk1 and AS-Jnk2). Right: proteins extracted on day 3 after transfection were immunoblotted for different proteins and quantitated by densitometric analysis. B and C: cells transfected with MS-Oligo (○), AS-Jnk1 (■), or AS-Jnk2 (▲) was seeded on transwells. TER (B) and inulin permeability (C) were measured at varying times. Values are means ± SE (n = 6). *Significantly (P < 0.05) different from corresponding values for AS-Jnk1 and AS-Jnk2 groups. D, left: cell monolayers were fixed and stained for occludin and ZO-1 by immunofluorescence method. Right: densitometric measurement of junctional fluorescence for occludin and ZO-1. Values are means ± SE (n = 3; each value is an average of 6 measurements in different regions of the monolayer). *Significantly (P < 0.05) different from corresponding MS-Oligo values. E: Caco-2 cells transfected with MS-Oligo, AS-Jnk1, or AS-Jnk2 were incubated with (solid bars) or without (shaded bars) hyperosmotic buffer. Inulin permeability was measured at 1 h. Values are means ± SE (n = 6). *Significantly (P < 0.05) different from corresponding control values. F: after 1-h incubation, with or without OS, cell monolayers (transfected with different oligos) were fixed and stained for occludin and ZO-1.