Fig. 2.

IL-27 attenuated TGF-β1-induced EMT in A549 cells. A549 cells were treated with 40 ng/ml of TGF-β1 or/and 100 ng/ml of IL-27 for 48 h. a, b The transcription levels of epithelial phenotypic markers E-cadherin and β-catenin and mesenchymal phenotypic markers vimentin and a-SMA were measured by real-time PCR and a western blot. c Fluorescence micrographs of E-cadherin, β-catenin, vimentin and α-SMA in AECs at 200X. Scale bars = 100 μm. Green or red indicates the protein of interest, and blue indicates the cell nucleus. Quantification of E-cadherin, β-catenin, vimentin and α-SMA in AECs was carried out using Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software. Mean optical densities were measured. All data are shown as the mean ± SD from at least three experiments. Statistical significance was assessed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc test. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001