Figure 5.

Effects of stilbene analogues and dexamethasone (DEX) on the PI3K/Akt pathway in primary airway epithelial cells. Representative blots of phosphorylated and total Akt protein expressions in primary airway epithelial cells from (A) healthy and (B) COPD patients treated with either isorhapontigenin (ISO) or resveratrol (RES) (30 and 100 μM) or 1 μM DEX for 1 h before stimulation with 1 ng·mL⁻¹ IL‐1β + CSE for 60 min, or either IL‐1β or CSE alone. IL‐1β increased the levels of phosphorylated Akt (at Ser⁴⁷³ and Thr³⁰⁸) protein expression, which was suppressed by stilbene analogues and to a lesser extent by DEX (n = 3). Quantification of (C) phosphorylated Akt (Ser⁴⁷³) and (D) phosphorylated Akt (Thr³⁰⁸) protein expression is presented as mean ± SEM (n = 3) where the black bars represent cells from healthy controls and the red bars represents cells from COPD patients.